


Let There Be Light

by hyunchanee_exo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, Might be cheesy at times, Mysterious Ambiance, Romance, Royalty, Science Doesn't Exist, Slightly Astronomical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 06:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 35,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16738858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyunchanee_exo/pseuds/hyunchanee_exo
Summary: Chanyeol has been chosen to chase the Sun and bring it back to the sky.Things do not really go well once he meets the Solar Emperor.





	Let There Be Light

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Here I am again with another fic based on BAE1533 from the 2019 Archive of the Bacon & Eggs Fanfic Fest! Thank you so much to the mods for holding this adoption and giving me considerations, to everyone of my followers and mutuals cheering me on while writing this fic and especially to Cee, M and Ji who helped me with the scenarios ahahaha. Also, I must apologize because this fic is not betaed but I did my best to edit it to make it less crappier.
> 
> I must also mention that this fic is slightly inspired by the Land of the Lustrous, and you might need to refer to Google to get an image of the gemstones that I will be mentioning along the way. This fic is also purely fantastical, and if you try to incorporate Science into the logic behind the stuff going on with the celestial bodies here, it will only give you a headache. It happened to me lol.
> 
> Without further ado, here is the fic!
> 
> This is the playlist of songs I listen to while writing this fic: https://open.spotify.com/user/jaa34dq0cvzer32kmrpd9k1ht/playlist/0W3IPi4oNTEtDk90GqgI49?si=H5GjGw5cQniSSnXfejfzcw

Once upon a strange time there exists a world without the Sun. For thousands of years, the people of this world are submerged in complete darkness, with only their little devices of fire to light their way and the happy little stars twinkling up in the skies guiding them through their daily lives.

How mankind lost the Sun, no one exactly knew. It was said that when the Sun disappeared, a great catastrophe plagued mankind and drove human civilization to near extinction, and it was during this time that all knowledge about the Sun vanished along with it. They only knew of its existence - what it truly is has always been a mystery to them, but their ancestors starting the legacy of trying to search for it is enough to tell them the Sun was once very important to mortality and the world needs it back.

There are rumors though, about how the Sun didn't want to shine anymore and has sought refuge amongst the other celestial beings in a stellar dimension - but those were only rumors that had no definite basis for the truth.

One day underneath the twinkle of a thousand stars, the youngest boy of the Park clan named Chanyeol strays away from home and comes to a lake which was said to stand between the boundaries of the real world and the stellar realm. From the surface, the lake seems deep and scary underneath the light of his lantern. But something about it enchanted the young boy and compelled him to come closer, further into its dangerous trap.

And suddenly, with a loud splash, he falls into the cold water.

Gasping for dear life, the young boy screams for help as he flails around trying to paddle himself up back to the surface but to no avail. Something seems to be pulling him down on to that same spot, holding him in place for several seconds. The air is starting to leave his lungs, and he could feel his mind losing contact with reality. His sense of consciousness fades away, teetering at the edge until finally, everything seems to let go...

“Chanyeol!”

The next time the young boy comes back, he finds himself surrounded by a couple of adults with his mother and father hovering over him, the orange glow of lanterns reflecting on their worried faces.

“Chanyeol, my darling!” his mother cries, pulling him up the shoulders then pressing him against her chest, mindless of how the water still clinging to him wets the front of her expensive blouse. “How did you make your way to this place? We were so worried!”

“Mother…”

“Do not run away from home ever again!" she continues to chide, cradling her son's head as she kisses his forehead. "We nearly lost you! Do not cause pain to your mother and father ever again!”

“Mother! Please!”

The young boy cries out with hurt in his voice as he starts to writhe in his mother's grasp, whimpering and whining as he contorts his body around. The adults stare at him in horror, wondering what is happening to him.

“Make it stop, please!” he sobs as he paws at his mother's arms. “It is painful!”

“Quick! Take his clothes off!” Someone from the clump of people yells, and in no time, the boy is stripped down into nothing. Much to their aghast, they discover something peculiar happening to his skin.

“What is going on?” His mother murmurs in astonishment and shock as a pattern forms on the boy's chest. It resembles a bird, glowing with fiery light that burns through the pale pallor of his skin. Goosebumps and sweat start to break out across the young boy's skin as he continues to move, trying to contain the pain.

“We have to stop it!” His father shouts. “It is hurting him!”

“No,” an old woman suddenly appears from the crowd.

“I beg your pardon?” His father asks with slight irritation in his voice.

“I can feel it, that mark is vital. The spirits are trying to tell you something,” she points a feeble finger to the boy. “Bring him to the sages up the mountain temple, quickly.”

“He is in pain! He might not live-“

“He  _will_  live,” the old woman says with a cryptic smile. “Just bring him up to the sages.”

Despite the uncertainty, the boy's parents bring him up to the mountains with the aid of the townspeople, where the old sages reside. They are the ones responsible for maintaining the peace and harmony between the real world and the stellar realm, leading various festivals and rituals to appease the spirits.

As they enter past the shrines that guard the temple of the sages, those who stand as guards at the gate rang the gongs as announcement of their coming. The gates of the temple open, and out comes the sages, all dressed in their red and maroon glory.

“How may we help you, Mr. and Mrs. Park?” the Elder, head of all the sages, asks in a wizened yet powerful voice.

“Please…” the young boy's mother pleads as she caresses her son's face. He is now shivering, murmuring incoherent things under his breath. “My child nearly drowned and is plagued with a fallacy that we cannot discern. Please help us, help  _him_.”

The Elder stares at the young boy for a few moments before he gestures at his companions. “Lay him down, open his robes.”

The other sages take him away and then lay him on the ground. They then tear open the robes that had been donned on him. As the glowing pattern on his skin comes to view, the sages gasp in unison, eyes frantically darting to meet each other before they turn to the sky and start singing out their praises to the stars.

“Hear ye! Hear ye!” The Elder shouts as he spreads his arms out to the people. “The heir of the Park clan now bears the mark of the Sun!”

“W-What do you mean?” The young boy's father asks in confusion.

“Centuries ago, one of our ancestors made a prophecy. A boy bearing the mark of the Sun must make the ultimate sacrifice and deliver mankind from never-ending night. He will bring back the Sun!”

The boy’s parents stare down at his pitiful frame, eyes filled with a blend of awe and worry. Among every other person in this world, their son has been chosen to do such an important task. It makes their chests swell with pride, but at the same time, his future concerns them.

“What must we do, then?” his mother asks. “How do we prepare him for that?”

“He will go through multiple obstacles on the way, and for that, you must train him to have both a strong mind, body, heart and soul,” the Elder softly says as he lathers a kind of oil on the young boy's mark, soothing it until the glow fades away and he sighs in relief, drifting away into slumber. The old man smiles as he pats his raven locks.

“I can feel power and greatness from him,” he looks up to his parents. “So you do not have to worry. Have trust in him.”

And so, Chanyeol grows up to be a boy with a certain destiny yet an unclear path, not knowing when or how he must do the sacrifice. He is not afraid of his fate - he has learned to just accept the inevitable especially because it is for the good of all mankind. But of course, as mortal, he cannot help but fear the challenges that he has to undergo in order for the sacrifice to be of worth.

“Chanyeol, your friends are here.”

Chanyeol momentarily looks away from the ceiling and to his mother who is standing at the door. He then shifts his eyes back to the ceiling and sighs.

“Tell them to leave, I am sleeping the day away.”

Sensing that there is something wrong, Mrs. Park closes the door behind her as she walks over to her son's bed, where he is currently lying motionless. She sits at the edge, looking at him with worry in her eyes.

“Chanyeol, are you okay?”

Her son just hums.

“Mother… I am twenty-two.”

“And what about it?” the woman gently probes.

“When do I have to do the sacrifice?”

Mrs. Park sighs as she reaches out and places her hand on Chanyeol’s hand which lay by his side.

“Time will tell,” she gently says. “You do not have to rush it.”

“But I just want to get it over with,” he sighs. “I have been anticipating for it my whole life. Do you know how mentally straining it is for me?” Anxiety is evident in his voice as he rubs his slightly red face, trying hard not to breakdown. “Mom, I might die from the sacrifice. Isn't that such a cruel way to live life? I'm basically idling around, waiting for my death. I have a deadline, and the worst thing is that I don't know when.”

His mother could only stare at him in pity. People only have two views about Chanyeol's fate - it is either they look up to him as an upcoming hero or pity him, and he absolutely hates it when people feel sorry for what will happen to him. But what can he do?

He feels sorry for himself, too.

“Mom, I just want to be alone for now.”

“Of course, darling,” his mother says, pursing her lips to force back her sadness as she stands up and walks out of the room.

“I will tell your friends to come another day,” she says before she disappears behind the door.

Chanyeol spends the whole day sleeping as he had decided, which is the usual for him whenever he does not have to train with the sages who regularly come by. He really wished his training could have taken up every day of the week instead so that he could be distracted from his thoughts and not have to delve deep into the recesses of his depressing and anxious mind.

Despite the knocks and the gentle reminders for him to eat, Chanyeol does not appear for lunch and supper, choosing to just stay immobile on the bed as he beats himself up with the things pestering his mind - why he was the one chosen out of all the seven billion people in the world, why he was chosen when he does not even really perform well during his training, why someone as bland and boring as him was chosen, why he had the misfortune of being chosen, why Fate wants him to die early on its terms, why the goddamn Sun even has to cease its supposed reign over the skies thousands of years ago and all sorts of questions that only stir his negative emotions.

Somewhere in the middle of the late hours when mortal souls go through deep slumber, Chanyeol is awakened by something. As he blinks awake into consciousness and tries to make sense of reality, Chanyeol turns his head to all eight directions just to find the source of disturbance.

The moment he looks up, Chanyeol suddenly sees something floating right above him. He is not sure at first about what it is, confused with blurry eyes from sleep. It is only a minute later when he fully grasps what it is.

“A flame? A will ‘o wisp?” Chanyeol mumbles under his breath as he slowly reaches up, eyebrows furrowed. It is a tiny blue flame, burning brightly with an ethereal glow without any source as it floats in the air. When his finger closes in on it, the flame moves away before he could touch it, zooming slowly across the room towards the door.

In an enchanted daze, Chanyeol throws his bed sheets away and gets off the bed to follow the flame. Reasonable thinking somehow leaves his mind as he follows it out of his house in just his bare feet and pajamas, not even minding how the natural debris on the ground scratches his heels.

He keeps on walking, somehow put in a trance as Chanyeol just mindlessly follows the little blue will ‘o wisp through the dark.

And suddenly, Chanyeol is  _falling._

Without even knowing, Chanyeol has reached the edge of the lake and the next step had sent him plunging into the water. It’s almost déja vù, how the dark water swallows him greedily into its monstrous grasp. No, it wasn’t déja vù – it was nostalgia more than anything. This has happened before, back when he was a mere young boy with no sense of the world. Unlike before, he had been able to flail and fight against the dark water’s grip. Now, he couldn’t even move. It’s like an invisible force was holding him in place and paralyzing him, rendering him unable of movement and pliant to the darkness.

Chanyeol drifts further and further down the deep, dark watery abyss until he loses grasp of reality and gives in to unconsciousness.

 

☆彡

 

Chanyeol awakens in a very strange world.

How he had known it was not the world he was accustomed to, it was evident. Chanyeol had awakened in a forest with his surroundings as dark as what he was used to, but the dark is illuminated by peculiar glowing dust motes hanging in the atmosphere that seem like air but move like water when Chanyeol reaches out to touch them. He also notices that the trees and plants were luminescent, exuding an ethereal, gentle glow. The trees around him are seemingly crystalline with leaves of emerald and the grass seems like sharp blades of diamond. The flowers had a vibrant tint to their glassy surface, glinting with luster as they move. When he looks up, there are more of the glowing dust motes but as they reach higher up, they look more like stars, mixing in with violet, blue and red clouds that resemble galaxies up in the atmosphere.

Chanyeol rubs his eyes, making sure if what he truly is looking at is correct. When he blinks his eyes clear of tears, he looks around once more and sees that his surroundings have remained constant as it was before he rubbed his eyes.

“So it is true,” he mumbles to himself as he pushes himself up to his feet. The grass blades on the ground folded under his feet, similar to just normal grass despite of its seemingly glassy properties. “The rumors about the lake being a gateway to another world are true…”

With curious, bright eyes, Chanyeol takes in his surroundings. It feels so surreal falling into such a magnificent looking place that he initially thought could only be something that can materialize in his dreams, yet he doesn’t even feel disoriented or shaken of how sudden he is thrusted into all this.

“Or am I just dreaming?” he mumbles to himself. He then proceeds to pinch the soft skin of his lower arm, eliciting a pained cry out from himself.

“Does not seem like it,” Chanyeol decides. He is indeed in a real but very different world. But what kind of world, he still does not have any idea.

Chanyeol stops dead on his tracks, eyes wide when he realizes something.

“What if this is the start of my journey to bring back the Sun?” he gasps. “And this place might be–”

_“Who are you?!”_

Chanyeol cries out, stumbling back when someone suddenly pops out in front of him. It is a man who cannot seem to reach past his shoulders, glaring up at Chanyeol with angry, furrowed thick eyebrows, big black pits for eyes and dressed in red, yellow and black robes with a sword made of glowing red embers in his grasp. One part of his face is dotted with zircon and spinel jewels that glint every time he moves. His raven hair seems to have dots of stars in them that wink in random intervals, and his pale skin shines with an iridescent sheen.

“Trespasser!” the short man yells out as he aims his sword at Chanyeol, who jolts back to avoid the sharp edge from grazing his chin. “Speak your alibis or I will execute you on the spot for trespassing the Solar Palace’s property!”

“I-I come in peace!” Chanyeol blurts out, lifting his arms out in surrender. “I am just a lost wanderer, I–“

“Halt with the excuses and come with me!”

The next thing Chanyeol knows is that he is being dragged forcefully by the small man with surprising strength towards a castle seemingly made of clear gold that casts a sparkling glow, almost like everything in this world. He pulls him through the double doors opened by two guards clad in the same attire as he is, then down a hallway lit by blocks of brightly glowing squares embedded on the ceilings aside from the light produced by the glowing dust motes. Upon reaching another set of double doors, Chanyeol finds himself being shoved to the cold floor with a loud thud.

“Ow,” he groans.

“Why are you always so violent towards people, Kyungsoo?”

“This person is a trespasser, Jongin!”

Chanyeol looks up and sees another man clad in the same clothes as the other seated on a chair in front of a table in laid with a delicate tea set made of clear glass. When the man settles his gaze on Chanyeol, he is startled by the violent gray matter that colors his eyes, with the same red and orange jewels as the shorter man’s adorning one part of his face and the same stars in his black hair. His beautiful, bronze skin glowed with a stunning golden iridescence.

“Hello there stranger,” the man greets with a mysterious smile. “I am sorry in behalf of Kyungsoo, he is always so wary.”

The short man simply grunts as he rolls his eyes and makes his way out of the room.

“Anyway, get up,” the seated man urges Chanyeol as he picks up a kettle and pours the liquid within into the cups. “Have some tea with me.”

He was a bit uncertain, but Chanyeol had no choice and stands up, wobbling over to the seat right across the seated man.

“I am General Jongin, head of the royal guards for the Solar Palace,” the man introduces himself as he hands him the tea cup. “And who are you? You seem very suspicious; I cannot blame Kyungsoo.”

Chanyeol stares down at the tea in the cup, scratching his head as he wonders if it was alright to reveal that he is mortal which these people probably are not.

“I am Park Chanyeol and I…” he looks up at the man. “I come from the land of mankind.”

“I figured,” Jongin chuckles. “How did you manage to get here?”

“What is this place even, exactly?” Chanyeol wonders as he brings the cup to his lips. As it trickles down his throat, he gasps, feeling a strange sort of burn as it made its way down his stomach.

Jongin looks at him with a weird sort of tension in his eyes as he says, “This is the Celestial Realm, where the celestials, stellar beings of the universe, reside and live. We call your home land the Terrarian Realm. Now answer me about how you got here.”

“I followed a pillar of fire out of my house and I fell into a lake. When I woke up, I found myself here.”

Jongin hums as he sips on his tea. “Well it seems like you are to be trusted,” he puts his tea cup down. “The tea did not kill you.”

Chanyeol flinches back in surprise, throwing the tea cup to the ground.

“This was poisoned?!”

“Only if you had bad intentions coming here,” Jongin laughs, finding amusement in looking at Chanyeol’s terrified face.

“Do not be so scared, it was harmless.”

“I could have died!”

“Only if you were a bad person!”

Chanyeol sighs as he pulls himself together, trying to push away the thoughts of nearly getting killed before he could even do his duty of bringing back the Sun.

“Wait…” he mumbles, staring at Jongin who gazes back at him questioningly. If this is the Celestial Realm where the celestials live, does it mean that the Sun might be here too?

“What is on your mind, mortal?” Jongin probes. “It seems something important.”

“Well…” Chanyeol smiles awkwardly. “I was just wondering if the Sun is here.”

Jongin tenses as he pours more tea into his cup.

“And what business do you have with the Sun?”

“The… the Sun has not… been around for quite a long while…”

“Indeed, he has not,” Jongin nods, gray eyes even more violent than they were before yet clouded, as if he is on guard - and he probably is. It could only mean one thing.

“Perhaps… do you have any idea where he is?”

Jongin shakes his head. “It is best not to question where he is now.”

“But why?”

“It is of no use,” the royal guard looks away. “Trying to bring him back is a lost cause. The celestials have tried before, but he would not comply. He is out there somewhere, hidden from sight, and a mortal like you would have to give up trying to find him. He doesn’t  _want_  to be found.”

Chanyeol visibly sags, the weight of the task that he had been chosen to do ever since his childhood growing even heavier on his shoulders upon the information that he discovers.

_The Sun himself does not want to be found._

Feeling sorry, Jongin reaches out and pats his shoulder. “Since you are lost, I will let you stay here until we find a way to send you back home with the condition that you do not let yourself be seen by the emperor. Is it a deal?”

Too upset to think about anything else, Chanyeol simply nods, body limp.

“Good,” Jongin stands up. “Stand up, I will show you to your quarters.”

The royal guard leads him into a room with only a bed, a closet and a separate room which is a bathroom. Jongin leaves him alone to make himself comfortable, yet it does nothing but make himself feel even more uncomfortable. He is in a world far different from his own, someone advised him not to search for the Sun anymore and now he does not know what to do. He does not know how to go home, and can he even come home knowing he failed to give his people hope by bringing back the Sun that did not even want to do his job anymore?

Chanyeol sleeps with a heavy heart and tears of frustration in his eyes.

 

☆彡

 

After several hours, Chanyeol wakes up to the sound of loud urgent knocking on his door. Rubbing his face to ease himself from grogginess, Chanyeol swings his feet to the floor then stands up to walk towards the door.

“Mortal.”

The person who greets him at the door is the one who found him first, a guard named Kyungsoo. He still looks kind of angry, but Chanyeol understood that it might just be how his face actually is.

“Hello,” Chanyeol greets, bowing respectfully. “What can I do for you?”

“Your food,” Kyungsoo simply says, shoving a dome-shaped glass container to his chest. Chanyeol quickly takes it, scared that something that looked so precious yet fragile might fall and break.

“I hope you can eat those,” the guard mumbles. “I do not exactly want to bury your corpse when our food proves to be inedible for you.”

Chanyeol gives him a small smile, appreciating the light concern despite it being masked by dark humor regarding his death.

“Thank you so much for helping me,” he says. “I wish I could give back for inconveniencing you.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head.

“You do not have to worry about it, mortal.”

“You can call me Chanyeol.”

“Alright, mortal.”

Chanyeol giggles.

“Anyway,” Kyungsoo turns around. “I am off for duty. Jongin says you can roam around, just remember the restrictions that he mentioned to you.”

Chanyeol nods. “Will do.”

“Goodbye.”

After Kyungsoo walks away and disappears down a hallway, Chanyeol glances down at the glass container as he closes the door behind him. With careful hands, he begins to open the container as he walks back to his bed.

“What the…” Chanyeol mumbles when he sees that besides the little glass bottle of liquid, everything inside is nothing but jewels and various crystalline objects with different shapes. He picks one up and lifts it up to the light source within the room.

“Is this really edible for me…?” he mumbles again. Chanyeol could not just really judge by staring at its physical characteristics, right? He would only know if he actually ate it, granted if he could even manage to bite through it since it seems so solid to the touch.

Nevertheless, Chanyeol couldn’t just give up like this. With a determined expression across his face, he brings the jeweled food to his mouth.

 _Crunch_.

“Oh my god,” Chanyeol says as he chews through the jewel. It is not hard at all, even if the crunching sounds prove otherwise. It is soft, just like usual mortal food, and did not seem to pose any threat to his teeth or his digestive system in general. It even tastes delicious and appealing to his taste buds in a peculiar way that could only be comprehended as exotic and unique to this world. To match it was the glass bottle that contained a liquid that seems to be like water but at the same time, it was purer, tasted cleaner and kind of thicker as well.

Mood uplifted, Chanyeol happily chews through his food as he thought up of an action plan. On the verge of sleeping a couple of hours ago, Chanyeol had wanted to just give up and find a way to come back home. But this time, he isn’t just going to go through this for survival. Despite what Jongin had told him, he will still do his best to find the Sun. He could just be out there somewhere, probably just waiting for the right person to convince him to come and grace the mortal world’s skies with light that they have been deprived of for thousands of years.

That is right. Chanyeol will try and stay alive all the while he searches for the Sun. He will only tell Jongin that he is trying to find a way to come back home and never mention about how he will still pursue his search.

He has to do this, by all means possible.

After Chanyeol finishes eating through his meal, he hides away the glass container underneath his bed then goes over to the closet. As he opens the doors, he finds a few clothes hanging on a rod within, robes that seem to be similar to the ones Kyungsoo and Jongin were wearing, but simpler. Taking out one set of the robes and a towel, Chanyeol then proceeds into the bathroom.

Around half an hour later, Chanyeol emerges from within the bathroom, feeling refreshed and with purpose. He hides away the towel then decides to go about with one part of his plan – venturing out of the palace to find a way out of this world.

Going out of his room proves to be painstakingly nerve-wrecking for Chanyeol. The people, probably servants, whom he has passed by all looked down with their heads bowed so they couldn’t see how he was not one of them, but it still made Chanyeol feel anxious about getting caught.

He keeps on walking, eyes flickering around in search for a way to the gates. He could not remember the way that he had passed through when Kyungsoo dragged him into the place, but if he sees the hallway, he might be able to recall.

Chanyeol was doing so well hiding his mortal presence from the celestial servants, until someone suddenly grabs him by the shoulder and turns him around.

“Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol whines when he sees that it is just the short guard going about his duty. He massages his chest, heart pounding so fast from fright.

“What are you planning?” Kyungsoo asks as he looks him up and down. “You are not about to do something funny, are you?”

“No,” Chanyeol says. “I am trying to find the hallway leading out to the gates.”

“And what are you going to do when you find it?”

“Find a way to leave this place.”

Kyungsoo gives him an incredulous look. “And what are you going to do when you make your way out?”

“Find a way to go back to my world.”

The guard sighs heavily.

“Ah, what a naïve mortal, indeed,” he clicks his tongue. “Out there, it is a jungle, Park Chanyeol. The emperor has power and rules over the Solar Empire, but there are no laws that control the celestials. It is not safe. You will  _die_  before you can even find a way out of this world.”

Chanyeol smiles. “It is okay, I can handle myself.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am not exactly just any ordinary mortal, Kyungsoo. I am not weak. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

“At least wait for a day before going out, you just got here.”

Chanyeol purses his lips. Kyungsoo is right, maybe it is best to wait another day to leave the palace. He does feel kind of unsure if he’d be able to be successful if he ventures out. He might even get lost and never find his way back here, which lessens his chances of surviving before he can be able to bring back the Sun.

“Okay,” the mortal answers. “I will not go yet, but allow me to roam around the palace. I will be careful.”

Kyungsoo nods. “Alright. Just as you say, be careful. Jongin trusted you, keep your word.”

“I will.”

After the guard walks away to leave Chanyeol once more, he turns down a hallway, eyes drifting around on alert. The hallway leads out to another hallway overlooking a garden circle within the middle of the palace with a fountain.

Chanyeol finds himself walking further towards the garden, but it is not because of the various vibrant, crystalline flowers found there or the enchanting way the fountain spewed out liquid that seems to have glittery properties.

He is compelled to walk towards the garden because of a singing voice.

Chanyeol has never heard any voice as sorrowful as this. Coated with thick gloom and dolor, the voice translates such a raw expression of melancholy deep in the singer’s heart that it brings salty liquid to Chanyeol’s eyes. Like a magnet, it pulls him in until he could finally see the owner.

Hiding behind a column, Chanyeol could see that the owner is a lone man who stands motionless among the ruby roses. From where he is, Chanyeol could make out a petite face, with droopy brown eyes, pink lips and a button nose, all framed with blond hair. On his ears hang elaborate golden earrings with drops of sunstone at the very end. He wears regal red and golden robes with patterns signifying majesty. Part of his face also has the same zircon and spinel jeweled patterns that is common among other celestials that he had seen, including Kyungsoo and Jongin. His blonde hair is also sprinkled with stars in them and his skin also has an iridescent sheen that shone in the different colors of the rainbow. On top of his head is a crown made of bright, fiery sphalerite.

_Such a beauty to behold…_

To Chanyeol’s horror, the person stops singing and looks up, his gentle brown eyes sharpening into daggers when he meets his gaze. The soft expression on his face vanishes and is replaced by a scary and stern look that has the mortal shivering on the spot.

Lifting a slender finger up to point at Chanyeol accusingly, he roars angrily, “WHO ALLOWED A MORTAL INTO THE PALACE?!”

Chanyeol wants to run, not wanting to deal with such a beautiful but very terrifying man’s wrath. His feet crave to walk a few steps back then turn around to break out into a dash for his life, but as the man stalks up to him in rage, he finds himself rooted on the spot.

“YOU!”

A pained cry rips out of Chanyeol’s lips when the man suddenly grabs him by the arm, fingers digging harshly into his flesh.

“You, who are you and why are you in my palace?” he demands briskly.

_My palace? So he is the emperor?_

Chanyeol tries to find the words to say, but he only manages to stutter out strings of gibberish before the man’s eyes blink and widen into horror.

“A-And… w-why do you look so much like  _him_?”

Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrow into confusion, wondering who the emperor is talking about.

“Speak, imbecile,” the emperor spits at him.

Chanyeol opens his mouth to answer, but he is disrupted by the loud rushed footsteps of someone running down the hallway.

“Your Highness!”

The emperor looks to the side, still stern as he says, “General Jongin, may I know why a mortal is in my palace freely roaming around?”

Chanyeol looks to the side and meets Jongin’s fleeting gaze.

“Mortals are crafty creatures, you know it best, Emperor Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen, feeling betrayed. Even if he owed Jongin his life for taking him in and even feeding him, it gives him a kind of ache in his heart and a cruel realization that indeed, he is definitely on his own now.

The emperor is silent for a moment. A couple of seconds pass, and he finally releases his visor grip on Chanyeol’s arm.

“Very well,” he says as he stands up straight, giving Chanyeol a final cold onceover.

“Take him out of the palace.”

Jongin reaches out and aggressively whisks Chanyeol away, dragging him down the hallway away from the emperor who looks at his direction with a forlorn look before he turns around and goes back to the garden, breaking out into another song before his voice fades away as they make a turn.

“I’m sorry, Chanyeol,” Jongin murmurs. “If Emperor Baekhyun finds out that I am the one who accepted you in, he will execute me.”

“But why?”

“He… He is not exactly fond of mortals.”

“You will not tell me more about him?”

Jongin smiles at him sadly. “No. You do not need to.”

Chanyeol nods.

“Emperor Baekhyun, huh...”

 

☆彡

 

“Your Highness?”

Baekhyun leans away from the rails and turns to the side, quickly wiping off the grim expression on his face and exchanging it for a soft smile when he sees his most trusted head servant, Sehun, walking up to him.

“I heard you saw a mortal in the palace!” Sehun exclaims, cheeks blossoming from running and from young curiosity.

“Yes,” the emperor says, putting a hand on the young boy’s blond mane. “He must have strayed in, not knowing that this place is a palace.”

“Are you okay?” Sehun asks, blue eyes wide open.

“Never been better,” Baekhyun answers, leaning against the rails once more as his mind strays off to the mortal’s face again. It sends a shiver down his spine and an electric sensation in his chest that prompts him to wrap his arms around himself protectively.

“Do you… do you feel sad?”

The emperor chuckles as he gazes with fondness at his servant.

“No, not really... Why would I be?”

“You do not exactly like mortals and I never asked why, even after all these years. Is it because of your bad experience?”

“Ah,” Baekhyun says. “Well… maybe part of it, but most of it is because mortals do not belong in this place.” He sighs as he looks out into the distance. “They should not be here. They should not suffer in a world like this. Mortal suffering is too painful to think about.”

“I am worried about you now.”

Baekhyun looks back at the servant. “Why?”

“You just admitted that part of the reason why you do not like the presence of mortals is because of your bad experience and it is somehow affecting you.”

Baekhyun smiles. Sehun is physically younger and can act how he looks so oftentimes, he forgets the fact that he had been here even before he became the Solar Emperor and is wiser than he looks.

“It does not matter,” the emperor smiles. “I truly am okay. Nothing to worry about. Jongin has gotten rid of the mortal. I hope he goes back to his realm; this world is not safe for him.”

The servant and the emperor continues to look out to the garden, enjoying the peace and tranquility. Baekhyun breaks out into another melody, an old song he absolutely loved which is, ironically, created by the mortals so many centuries ago.

Sehun sighs, closing his eyes as he relishes the beautiful singing voice of their Solar Emperor with a smile. They stand there until Baekhyun suddenly comes to a stop, letting out a shaky gasp. The cold had suddenly come, a chilly breeze blowing through the place, sending frost crawling on their skins.

“Your Highness…”  Sehun murmurs. “It is the Halleyians.”

“Indeed,” Baekhyun says, straightening up. He reaches out, a snowflake falling on his palm before it melts. “Why didn’t Minseok and Jongdae tell me they are going to come here today?”

“Maybe it is something urgent.”

“But still…” he mutters as his mind strays towards the pair of wide, scared hazel eyes. Where is the mortal at this moment? Has he reached far? Is he still even alive? Minseok’s aura could reach a wide scale. Such a fragile life would definitely not be able to handle the cold for long without layers of garment to protect him.

_I love you, Baekhyun._

The emperor flinches, breath picking up at the sudden memory that attacks him.

“Sehun.”

The young celestial flinches into attention.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Please find the mortal again,” Baekhyun says, voice shaky.

_Baekhyun, it is so cold…_

Sehun gasps. “But Your Highness! Are you sure about that?”

“King Minseok is here, we will be afflicted by temporary winter. I cannot let the mortal suffer because of me…” Baekhyun gulps as he looks up at the galaxies ahead. “H-He makes me remember precious memories… My conscience cannot take it.”

Sehun nods in understanding. “I see. Should I bring him to you when I come back with him?”

Baekhyun grips the rails. Is this really okay? Will he be alright gazing upon that familiar face again?

“Please do.”

When Sehun leaves, Baekhyun turns to the other direction to greet his friends. He curses them in his mind as he shivers in his thin robes, a bit annoyed that they did not give him prior notice before dropping by to visit. His constituents will definitely be disturbed by the sudden cold that has come to the empire.

“Baekhyun!” Jongdae cries out when Baekhyun enters one of the receiving rooms. From his sitting position on the sofa, Jongdae stands up and pounces on the emperor, almost knocking him off his feet.

“You are still annoying,” Baekhyun groans as he tries to push him away, but the Halleyian just clings on to him even tighter.

“Ah, come here Jongdae,” Minseok laughs as he grabs Jongdae’s collar and pries him off of Baekhyun. “Sorry about Jongdae, it has been quite a while since the last time we came for a visit.”

“You should have at least told me first before coming,” Baekhyun says as he walks over to the sofa. “Come, sit. Let us talk.”

 

☆彡

 

Chanyeol is sure he could have at least a fifty-fifty percent chance of surviving even without anyone’s aid. He can be very resourceful and he can protect himself well. But when the temperature suddenly drops and winter suddenly arrives, Chanyeol is as good as dead.

He does not have any idea how seasons work in the Celestial Realm since it did not seem like this world even  _had_  seasons, so it comes as a shock when the air suddenly turned chilly and snow began falling. Chanyeol finds bushes and some wide fallen leaves that he uses to wrap around himself then hides himself in there.

For the first few hours, Chanyeol holds up well to the cold. But when more hours pass and the energy in him drains out from the lack of food consumption, he finds himself shivering, curled up on the ground and at the verge of unconsciousness.

It is so silly, how Chanyeol, the man Fate has chosen as the one to bring back the Sun, would die from the cold. It is ridiculously very ironic as well, and it is embarrassing. What’s probably even sillier is that he is nearly dying yet all Chanyeol could think is how embarrassing it would be to be known in history as the one who is supposed to bring back the Sun but died from hypothermia before he could fulfill his task.

Dying was something that Chanyeol had been prepared for all his life and he is not afraid to face it. But right now, he desperately wants to avoid it. For the first time, he actually _fears_  it. He fears it because he still has a task to do. He fears it because it is embarrassing. He fears it because his parents do not even know where he is now. He fears it because he did not want to die cold and lonely.

And maybe Fate is not totally a merciless bitch after all, or maybe it still wants him to do what he is supposed to do. Either way, Fate ends up pitying him and sends him hope.

“Mortal! Show yourself! The Solar Emperor wants to see you! Mortal!”

His limbs are frozen and he could not seem to move. Chanyeol internally screams at himself, “ _Move, you idiot! People are looking for you!”_

“Mortal! I am a servant of the Solar Emperor! He wants to see you!”

_If you cannot move, then at least speak, you idiot!_

“I AM HERE!”

Chanyeol breathes in relief when he manages to scream out loud enough, and maybe shed a few tears, too. He had felt so helplessly, and now he is so thankful. He is not dying.

The bushes suddenly move and past his squinted eyes, Chanyeol makes out a young boy’s face, accompanied by two other older people flanking his sides.

“Mortal!” the young boy gasps. “You are frozen! Quick, help him!”

The three carefully drag him out of hiding. The young boy then brings his hands up to his mouth, breathing into them until the insides of his palms glow with a warm light then he places his hands on Chanyeol’s chest. A warm feeling settles in his chest, spreading out to the other parts of his body until the frost in Chanyeol’s body melts away.

“Mortal, are you alright now?” the young boy inquires as he takes his hands in his, squeezing them and soothing his thumbs over the back of his hands.

“I am,” Chanyeol whispers, voice small and weak.

“Good,” the young boy pats his shoulder. “I am Sehun and I am a servant of Emperor Baekhyun. Who are you?”

“Park Chanyeol...”

“Nice to meet you, Sir Chanyeol,” Sehun pats his shoulder. “I have come at my emperor’s order. I will bring you back to the palace and you will be audience to him.”

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows. “But didn’t he just drive me away? Why the sudden change of heart?”

Sehun smiles. “That I am in no position to tell you. Please, just come with us.”

Did Chanyeol even have a choice?

After draping a thick coat over his shoulders, Chanyeol stands up with the help of the two other servants and they make their trek back to the palace. He was not really able to walk that far, and they are still inside the Solar Palace’s property.

Even within the palace, it still seems cold. Maybe even colder than in the outside, as if the cold had an actual source and it is found within these golden walls.

“The Halleyian King has come to visit,” Sehun speaks up, as if reading Chanyeol’s mind. “That is why it is so cold.”

“I see,” Chanyeol murmurs as he digs himself deeper into the thick coat.

“We will prepare you while Baekhyun talks with the Halleyians,” Sehun explains as he leads him into a room which turns out to be another bathroom, larger than the one in the quarters that Jongin had given him. It is large because instead of a tub, there is a pool, then the other side there is changing area with a wardrobe for clothes.

“Please strip down,” Sehun says. “We shall bathe you.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen in horror.

“What do you mean  _bathe me?_  I can do it on my own!”

“Please allow us,” Sehun bows down. “Our guests must be treated with extreme care and be pampered to the best of our abilities.”

Chanyeol sighs.

“Okay then. I will allow you.”

The bright smile that Sehun gives him is somehow worth his shame.

The two servants help Chanyeol clean up, bathing him in glittery liquid just like the one that he saw the fountain spew out, mixed in with all sorts of aromas that he has never smelled before. He only takes the scrub to reach his private parts, and aside from that he lets the servants clean up the other parts of his body. Although it does make him feel a bit insecure and conscious about how the mark on his chest is out for them to see, it appears that they do not really care so it does not bother him a little white later. Afterwards, they pour a kind of oil on his hair then proceed to rub out the dirt there. Once he is all done, Chanyeol gets out of the pool, dried down with a towel then is lead to where Sehun is standing.

“Here, wear these.”

Chanyeol jolts back a bit when Sehun suddenly shoves a new set of clothes for him and some shoes that all looked grander and more layered than the ones that have been given to him and Jongin. Without saying anything, he walks over to where the young boy had directed him to. He stands in front of a full-length mirror, a little blush of embarrassment tinting his cheeks as he takes off the bathrobe he is in, standing naked before he quickly slips on the robes and the shoes.

“You look very charming, Sir Chanyeol!” Sehun exclaims, he and his companion staring at Chanyeol through the mirror with satisfied smiles.

“Th-Thank you?” Chanyeol uncertainly says, smiling timidly.

“Come sir, I shall comb your hair. After that, you will be ready to face the emperor.”

Sehun gives extra care combing through Chanyeol’s raven locks, straightening them from their usual messy mop into a neat, brushed up style that shakes his core because he looks so different. So different from the lean man that he knows who could not look after his physical appearance because he has training and other things to worry about.  

For once, Chanyeol does not look like a rat in water.

“Done!” Sehun announces. “Sir Chanyeol, are you ready?”

“I did not exactly have the best encounter with Emperor Baekhyun...”

“Do not fear,” Sehun smiles. “He is a kind ruler with a heart of gold and a benevolent soul. Respect him and just be careful of your words. He can be unpredictable with his reactions.”

Chanyeol simply purses his lips.

Once they deem him ready, Sehun and his companions lead Chanyeol out of the room. The other two servants flank Chanyeol behind, each slightly to the side while Sehun leads the way. Through the walk, Chanyeol keeps on doing breathing exercises since his heart is pounding so hard from anxiety and his palms are sweating like crazy.

Sehun finally pauses in front of a room with tall double doors. He glances over at Chanyeol, giving him a final encouraging glance before he opens them then spreads an arm out as he bows, showing him in.

With nervous footsteps, Chanyeol enters the room, which turns out to be the dining hall. There is a long table in the middle of the room, adorned with vases filled of fresh flowers from the garden and with the same jeweled food that Kyungsoo had fed him, only a bit more elaborate, similar to the concept of meals prepared for special occasions back in the Terrarian Realm.

“Greetings, mortal.”

Chanyeol looks up, and he is relieved to meet the soft brown gaze of the emperor, unlike the last time when he had been subjected to his petrifying glare.

“Your Highness,” he manages to say without stuttering as he bows, but he is nervous and it causes a shake in his voice.

The emperor raises a hand. “Come, sit here,” he gestures to the seat to his right.

With careful footsteps, Chanyeol walks over to the seat, pulls it back then sits down, eyeing the emperor cautiously.

“I did not catch your name, mortal.”

Chanyeol perks up. “I-I am Park Chanyeol.”

The emperor nods. “I see. What a pretty name.”

Chanyeol did not know how to react to that.

“And I am Emperor Baekhyun,” he introduces himself. “But anyway,” the emperor points at the food laid out across the table. “You can eat the food here, right? Please eat anything you wish.”

“Thank you,” Chanyeol mumbles as he reaches out and begins filling his plate.

“First and foremost, I would like to apologize for… throwing you so coldly out of the palace.”

The mortal’s eyes flit up to look at the emperor, whose eyes held such sincerity it makes Chanyeol feel like he needs to apologize too.

“Please do not apologize,” Chanyeol hastily says. “I have trespassed anyway, and I have no right to–”

“It does not matter; I still have to say sorry.”

Chanyeol falls silent as he simply looks down at his food.

“T-Then… it is okay, Your Highness. I forgive you.”

Baekhyun smiles, satisfied.

“I am curious,” the emperor says. “How did you come to the Celestial Realm?”

Chanyeol fiddles with his golden utensils. “W-Well… I followed this will o’ wisp that disturbed my sleep. It is dark in the Terrarian Realm and it led me towards the lake so I fell in then here I am… I found myself lying in the middle of the forest.”

“Interesting,” Baekhyun murmurs, slender fingers drumming against the glass table. “So you have no way of retracing your path back home?”

Chanyeol shakes his head sadly, the difficulty of finding a way back home finally taking a toll on him. He had only appeared laying on the ground, with no significant landmark anywhere around him. How will he be able to find some kind of portal that could lead him back to his world?

The emperor hums as he picks up his crystal wine glass then brings it up to his lips, deep in thought. When he puts it back down with a light clink against the table, he says, “You will be spending quite a while in the Celestial Realm, then.”

“It seems so,” Chanyeol answers.

“Treating you as my guest only to send you away right after does not seem quite right when you have no place to call home in this world,” Baekhyun says. “So, I have a deal to make with you.”

Chanyeol perks up. “What is it?”

“Well, I was thinking,” the emperor says. “That it would be best if you stayed here in the palace just until we find a way to send you back. While you stay here, you will become my servant. What do you think?”

Wide-eyed, Chanyeol stares at the Emperor.

“B-But… But why?”

Baekhyun shrugs. “I do not exactly know why, Chanyeol.” His tongue rolls over his name delicately. “It is partially because of pity.”

“And the other part?”

“Curiosity, maybe? You interest me.”

Under the emperor’s scrutinizing gaze, Chanyeol finds himself blushing. Why he is suddenly so flustered, he has no idea.

“Is it really okay, Your Highness? What if I cause you more discomfort, will that not be troublesome?”

Baekhyun waves a hand. “Your presence is not a problem.”

Chanyeol falls silent as he eats through his plate, thinking about it deeply. He is touched, very touched of the fact that Baekhyun wanted to help him while he finds a way to go back home. But something about his sudden change of heart, when he had thrown him out the first time they met, makes him hesitate.

Is he still bitter about it? Slightly, maybe. Chanyeol still feels so upset about being thrown out like that even if he had no right to be upset. But why should he keep on feeling hurt? The emperor already extended his apologies, and he is finally accepting him into the palace. He should stop being so petty and get over it. He’s an adult, he needs to stop getting controlled by his emotions and actually use his brain.

“Alright, Your Highness.”

Baekhyun stops midway from lifting a spoonful of the jelly-like food on his plate.

“I am accepting your proposal. I want to stay.”

The emperor smiles at him, a mix of satisfaction and smugness.

“Well done making the best decision for your situation right now, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says. “So be it, I now officially assign you as my personal assistant. You won’t have to do much. You will just have to keep me company and entertain me. I am sure you have tons of tales to tell me.”

Chanyeol nods obediently.

“Basically, I am the court jester.”

A loud, boisterous laugh leaps out of the emperor’s lips as he throws his head back in amusement, the sound making Chanyeol grin like idiot because damn it, he cannot help but actually find the emperor quite adorable laughing with his eyes turning into crescents and white teeth out on display, making him look younger than he already does.

“I am sorry if I make you think that way,” Baekhyun murmurs as he brushes away the tears in his eyes. “I really do not do a lot of business as an emperor, that is why I only want you to fill my days with entertainment. Are you uncomfortable of the task I require of you?”

“No, no, not at all,” Chanyeol shakes his head erratically. “I am sorry, I did not mean to imply that. I was just joking.”

“I know of your humor, but I was just reluctant… it is a good thing that it indeed was just for humor. Thank you, Chanyeol. I have not laughed like that in a long time.”

The mortal nods, cheeks flushed so he hides it by looking down at his plate.

“So I think that is all,” Baekhyun says with finality as he leans back against his chair. “When you’re done, allow Sehun to assist you in introducing to you how things function here. I will have to leave since the Halleyians will be back again from one of their nearby love spots.”

Chanyeol nods obediently.

“Very well,” the emperor murmurs as he stands up. “I will see you again soon. It is nice to meet you, Chanyeol.”

When the emperor smoothly glides across the room and exits through the doors, Chanyeol finally lets go of the tension that has settled on his shoulders. Facing Baekhyun is surprisingly not at all that bad, but he can’t help but feel so wary about him. He doesn’t know why, but there’s something about him that makes him feel some kind of weird way that prompts him to just keep a distance.

“How was meeting Baekhyun?” the young celestial cheerfully greets him when Chanyeol finishes his food and makes his out of the dining hall.

“How long had you been waiting here?” Chanyeol wonders. “You… You have not been standing here all this time, have you?”

“You do not have to worry if I had been,” Sehun laughs. “I am not a mortal. I cannot get tired easily.”

Chanyeol nods. “Oh… I see.”

Sehun nods. “Shall I bring you to your quarters?”

“Yes please.”

Unlike the decent yet cramped and bland one that Jongin had given him, Sehun shows him a room that highly contrasts with it. With opaque glass walls, a mirror-like ceiling with a triangular crystal surface, luxurious furniture made of velvet seemingly embroidered with jewels and a cream-white bed with golden pillows and draperies, the room is overflowing with grandeur. It makes Chanyeol feel kind of small, like he did not deserve being inside a room as grand as this. He has never even imagined he’d be given a big room back in the Terrarian Realm, how much more a room that seems to exceed the value of a sack of the most precious metal in the world?

“Please feel at home, Sir Chanyeol,” Sehun says as he swings the door even wider open. “You will stay here for quite a while.”

“C-Can I not occupy a simpler room, Sehun?” the mortal nervously asks. “This is too much, I-I cannot sleep here–”

“Nonsense sir,” Sehun laughs. “This is just the same as the other servants’ rooms!”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen.

“B-But how–“

“Ah, please do not question anything anymore, Sir Chanyeol–“

“Just call me Chanyeol–“

“Yes, Sir Chanyeol. Now please, step inside and make yourself comfortable.”

In the end, Chanyeol does as he is told. He enters the threshold and then moves around, trying to get a full grasp of the living space that he will be using during the duration of his stay.

“I shall start orienting you with your duty as one of Emperor Baekhyun’s newly assigned servant,” Sehun says. “What did he tell you are your tasks?”

“Well…” Chanyeol says as he glides a hand over the surface of a clear crystal desk. “He requires my company and he wants me to entertain him.”

Sehun hums. “So he does not want you to do the usual work… well, seems like I won’t have to orient you much. You will just have to follow him around, maybe join him for meals. Also, please make sure to observe your manners and… and make him smile as much as you can.”

Chanyeol nods, turning his head to the side to hide the small smile on his lips when he recalls the memory of Baekhyun’s pretty smile as he laughs out loud.

“I understand, Sehun.”

“That is all then,” the young boy claps his hands. “I will take my leave. I shall see you when the Emperor wakes up.”

“When will that be? How do you measure time here?”

Sehun shrugs. “There is no way to measure time here since… you know… the Sun…” he looks so uncertain about it before he shakes his head and regains his composure. “We only base it on the times of Emperor Baekhyun’s rising and sleeping times. Should you not be used to that?”

“We have clocks,” Chanyeol says. “We do not exactly understand how that came to be since our ancestors started that along with the calendars but we do know how it works and continue to do it since it is an integral part to keep humanity functioning.”

“I see, that is interesting,” Sehun says. “But yes, we function according to the emperor’s waking hours, and we are more organized than you might think because he has a very specific schedule.”

Chanyeol’s mouth forms into an ‘o’.

“I will leave now for real,” Sehun says, making his way towards the door. “See you soon, Sir Chanyeol.”

“I told you, just call me Chanyeol–”

The door slams shut before the mortal could finish what he is saying.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Chanyeol pulls the chair in front of the desk carefully, not wanting to shatter it. He then plops down, immediately crossing his arms over the table then rests his head over them. Only at that moment did exhaustion finally settle on him, draining all of his energy.

So many things have happened, and yet it feels like it has barely been a day ever since he came here. It’s just very fortunate that Chanyeol found himself now in safer hands, and the only thing he has to worry about now are how he’s going to find the Sun when everyone seems reluctant to give him any information about his whereabouts and how he’s going to make his way back home.

Shooting up into a sitting position, Chanyeol starts to sift through the drawers of the desk. Because of his training, the sages have always required him to jot down everything that he has done through the day, his feelings while doing them and his reflection. Now that he’s finally in the journey that he has been training for ever since he was child, it seems fitting to make a log of everything that happens to him from now on.

Chanyeol finds a book with its cover actually made of ruby with empty pages. Along with it is a delicate rod also made of ruby that had a fine tip and a clear glass jar of sparkling blank ink. He lays them out and starts writing.

_Entry #1_

_I have now begun the journey that I have been training for my whole life._

_It all started when I fell into a lake, following after that will o’ wisp like an idiot. Next thing, I knew, I woke up in another world – they call it the Celestial Realm, where beings of the universe live. Everything is just so lustrous and colorful and pretty and everything glowed so vibrantly in the darkness._

_Probably not even an hour later, a celestial came for me. He’s named Kyungsoo, and he dragged me to what they call the Solar Palace. There I met Jongin, head of the guards, who nearly killed me with his tea. He made me stay, but it did not last long because the Emperor of the palace found me while I was foolishly roaming around. He then coldly forced me out._

_But that was net the last time I saw them. Apparently, some people they called the Halleyians came and caused a sudden blizzard across the Solar Palace’s property. The Emperor, named Baekhyun, took a pity on me and was interested in me so he took me in. Over dinner, he told me I should be his servant, and I said yes. I needed to survive, after all._

_This is not so bad. Emperor Baekhyun has the prettiest eyesmile, his young servant Sehun is very accommodating, Kyungsoo had been helpful and Jongin had been kind enough to let me stay._

_I will look forward to what the future holds. Hopefully, it’s just good things._

☆彡

 

“Greetings, Your Highness.”

Chanyeol is scared of approaching the emperor in the gardens, especially since it seems like an intimate moment for him. But what can he do? He cannot exactly whine to Sehun to go get the emperor himself since it would be totally embarrassing. He is an actual adult and Sehun is no more than just a young sixteen-year-old with the mindset of a wizened old man. Chanyeol has to appropriately act his age.

Thankfully, the emperor did not seem disturbed or irritated of his presence. On the contrary, it actually felt like he had been waiting for him.

_Or maybe it is just your imagination._

"Hello, Chanyeol," Baekhyun greets with a soft smile across his lips, paired up with his eyes forming into endearing crescents. "Why did you come?"

"Sehun wanted me to accompany you to the dining hall."

Baekhyun nods as he shifts his gaze towards the fountain. Chanyeol cannot help it but notice how ethereal the emperor looks - his skin having this iridescent prismatic sheen, his blond hair sparkling with stars, the ruby and spinel jewels on his face glinting as he moves and with the glowing dust motes floating in the atmosphere, everything comes together to form such a breathtaking sight. Like a meteor shower in a clear night.

"Chanyeol? Are you okay?"

The emperor's question pushes Chanyeol out of his trance. He shakes his head to clear his mind as a hint of a blush touches his face at the embarrassment of getting caught while staring.

"Ah, I zoned out a bit. I remembered something."

Baekhyun straightens up in attention.

"Will you tell me what it is?"

Chanyeol blushes even deeper.

"It is nothing interesting," he laughs awkwardly as his hand shoots up to scratch his hair.

"I highly doubt that. Anything that comes out of an otherwordly being's mouth is interesting to me.”

With Baekhyun probing hard like this, Chanyeol finds himself not being able to resist.

"W-Well I just thought... um... you remind me of a..."

Baekhyun smiles in innocently. "Of a what?"

"Of a meteor shower."

The emperor tilts his head to the side. “Why?”

“You are an exquisite sight.”

There is a silence that ensues, and the expression on Baekhyun's face is unreadable. In his mind, Chanyeol starts to pray for his soul, hoping that he did not offend the emperor in anyway.

Seconds later, Baekhyun suddenly takes a step towards him. His face is serious and for a moment, Chanyeol is struck by fear at what the emperor might do to him.

He does not expect the way Baekhyun reaches out to cradle his head in his hands, eyes darting over his features, sparkling in wonder as they seem to search for something.

“Tell me the truth, mortal,” he says in a hushed voice as his thumb caresses his skin. “Do you know me?”

Chanyeol blinks in confusion.

“I... I do not get what you mean.”

“But why… why do you speak, act and even look like  _him_?”

The mortal furrows his eyebrows.

“Who do you mean, Your Highness?”

Chanyeol watches as the emperor remains silent, continuing to look at him intently. He sees how his expression slowly changes until sadness finally settles in his eyes.

“What is wrong?” Chanyeol probes.

The emperor steps back, finally letting Chanyeol have his personal space back although having him close to him strangely feels relaxing. Familiar, even.

“It is nothing,” Baekhyun smiles apologetically. “I am sorry that you had to witness my eccentricity.”

“You are not eccentric, Your Highness,” Chanyeol blurts out without thinking much about his words.

The emperor chuckles. “You are very interesting.” He turns on his heels and continues, "Let us go proceed to the dining hall. I am hungry, I hope they made something that suits my taste today."

"But what if they did not?" Chanyeol suddenly blurts out again.

"Well, they are not psychic so it is not their fault, obviously."

Chanyeol nods, embarrassed once again for letting himself ask such a stupid question.

"Right..."

Upon entering the dining hall right after Baekhyun, Chanyeol sees the other servants standing stationary in a line just behind the chair at the head of the table. Sehun is among them, who gives Chanyeol a meaningful smile before his face melted into calm seriousness.

"Greetings, Your Highness," everyone says as they dip their heads. Chanyeol panics a bit, not knowing what to do so he abruptly bows down. In the process of doing so, his head bumps against the emperor's back, who twists his body and gives Chanyeol a questioning look.

Jolting up, Chanyeol gasps, "I-I did not mean to!" He bows once again in apology. "I am sorry!"

Instead of scolding him like he had expected, Baekhyun only puts a hand on his raven locks and pats his head gently then says, "Be at ease, Chanyeol. Do not be so nervous. It is okay.”

"I-I'm sorry..."

Baekhyun shakes his head with a light laugh. "Come, join me for this meal."

Despite the emperor's attempt to soothe him, Chanyeol is still jittery, not knowing how to act. He tries his best to calm himself down though, since Baekhyun seems like a good person after all and what he deserves is not a pathetic servant like him.

Chanyeol sits down on the seat to Baekhyun's right which he had preoccupied before, too. When he is finally comfortable, he looks up to the emperor with an expectant gaze.

“Shall we eat?” Baekhyun begins, spreading his hands out in invitation. Chanyeol nods timidly and reaches out for the food.

“Chanyeol, were you able to sleep well?” the emperor inquires as he starts filling his plate. “By the way, you should try that,” he points to a bowl filled with milky liquid, ice cube-like jewels floating in its surface. “It is extremely delicious.”

“I did, Your Highness,” Chanyeol graciously says. He then reaches out to the bowl and adds, “And please do not mind if I do have a taste.”

Baekhyun hums. “That is good.”

“Why, Your Highness?”

“Nothing important. Just making sure because I do not want you falling ill.”

But the glint in the emperor’s eyes seem to hint that he is up to something else.

And Chanyeol is right because when they finish dining, Baekhyun whisks him away to a secluded part of the palace, far away from the sight of the servants and the guards.

“Chanyeol, listen,” the emperor whispers. He has the mortal up against in a wedge between two walls, and he is so close that Chanyeol could literally see how delicate and pretty his eyelashes are that even seem to produce sparkling little motes every time he blinks.

“What is it, Emperor Baekhyun?” the mortal murmurs lowly.

“We are going out of the palace,” he says in a hushed voice. “But we will have to sneak out.”

“Why?”

“I am not allowed to go out due to… safety measures.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen. “B-But if that is the case, then shouldn’t you just come with your guards–”

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. “Do you dare question your emperor?”

Chanyeol lifts his hands up and shakes his head, eyes wide in panic. “I-I’m just saying that it might be dangerous a-and your guards are more capable of protecting you than I am that is why–”

“I understand where you are coming from, but they will never allow me out.”

Now Chanyeol is even more confused.

“You are the emperor though, you have the authority.”

Baekhyun shakes his head.

“I have power over the Solar Empire, but the galaxy is lawless and everything goes by no one’s terms. Crimes are unwarranted to punishment. I can take care of myself unlike how everyone in the palace thinks, but please. Come with me, Chanyeol.”

“Why do you even have to go out, Your Highness? You yourself says it’s dangerous, why do you have to risk–”

“Do you not wish to find a way back to your realm?”

Chanyeol blinks.

“W-What?”

“I want to help you,” Baekhyun shrugs.

“B-But–“

“You do not expect for a way back home to just appear while you idle around in the palace, do you?”

“N-No, of course not!”

“Then,” the emperor grabs Chanyeol’s larger hand. When they touch, the mortal feels a warm sensation shoot up his hand and spread to become electric shocks that quickly extinguish into a comforting feeling.

“Come with me, Chanyeol.”

And did Chanyeol have any choice?

Hand in hand, the couple attempts to sneak out of the palace with Baekhyun leading the way. While the emperor is obviously having fun doing this, Chanyeol is shaking with anxiety and the thrill of doing something dangerous. He had no problem sneaking around before because the palace is safer than the outside. This time, they are doing the opposite and after what he had heard about the outside, it is scaring him out of his wits.

The palace is more guarded than Chanyeol originally thought, making him wonder how on earth was he even able to sneak around undetected as a mortal back when he first snuck into the palace. They manage to sneak past the first few halls leading up to one of the side gateways, which wasn’t an easy feat. When they reach the final one, a guard suddenly appears when the emperor pulls Chanyeol out from hiding.

“Baekhyun!” the mortal cries out in a hushed whisper just in time before the guard could see them. He pulls the emperor to his chest and holds his breath, eyes on the guard as he waits for him to leave.

“That was so close,” Baekhyun breathes, laughing silently as he looks up at the terrified look on Chanyeol’s face. “And did you just call me by first name?”

Upon realizing that he indeed has, Chanyeol gives the emperor an even more terrified look.

“I-I am sorry, I did not mean to disrespect you, Your Highness–”

“Say my name again.”

Chanyeol wants to ask why again, but the way Baekhyun is looking makes him just forget about it.

“B-Baekhyun…”

The emperor closes his eyes and smiles.

“I have never heard my name being spoken like that in such a long time.”

“Did I pronounce that wrong, Your Highness?”

“No, it was perfect.” The emperor opens his eyes and stares up at the mortal with tenderness. “Call me Baekhyun from now on, understood?”

Chanyeol nods.

Now outside, there are lesser guards on duty. Baekhyun guides him through the greenery lining the way towards the gate, hiding from their sight. When they reach the side gate, Baekhyun pulls Chanyeol down behind a bush.

“We are lucky the gate is open today, the servants are probably out to gather resources,” the emperor whispers. “There is only one person guarding the gate, the others have strayed away. As you can see, the bastard is groggy from boredom so all we have to do is distract him with something.”

Chanyeol hums, racking his brains as his eyes drift around. His gaze then settles on the hard, round debris below his feet.

It is a stupid and childish idea, but they had to do something quick and efficient.

“Do you trust me, Your Highness?”

“I told you, call me Baekhyun–”

“Do you?” Chanyeol presses on.

The emperor blinks, confused. “Oh, w-well yes…”

“I have an idea,” Chanyeol says as he picks up the debris. “I will go there,” he points further behind them, “and throw the debris. I’ll aim at the guard and then maybe shout a taunt or something. When he goes here, you’ll hurry down the path towards the gate and I’ll come follow after you.”

“And if it does not work?”

“Well… this plan will have to be for another day.”

Baekhyun pouts distastefully, a sight Chanyeol would be distracted of if only he wasn’t preoccupied by thinking up of a way to leave the gate.

“Then I’ll trust that you make this work. If we do not manage to do this today, there will be no other days because security would be even more tight.”

Chanyeol is now daunted by the task, but it did nothing but make him even more determined to make this work.

“Go there now, quick,” he tells the emperor who quickly scurries down the path close to the gate.

Creeping back a few meters, Chanyeol picks up a debris on his way then crouches over on a spot, peeking out towards the guard who is now leaning against the wall, looking bored out of his mind and still groggy as well. Slowly, he lifts the debris up, poising it over his head at an angle he hopes is enough to reach the guard.

With one swift movement, Chanyeol finally lets the debris fly.

It was a fail, but not totally because it still managed to attract the guard’s attention when it hit the wall right next to him. The sound makes him jolt and immediately look over to where Chanyeol is now crouching over.

“Who is there?” the guard booms, obviously annoyed as he takes a step forward.

“Why don’t you come here and see?!” Chanyeol yells, starting to sweat nervously.

_Take the bait, damn it._

“Oh I will, and you better be prepared, punk!” the guard furiously exclaims as he starts to stalk towards Chanyeol’s place, fuming with heavy footsteps.

When the guard reaches halfway towards the bushes, Chanyeol finally breaks out into a run. He is not a fast runner; that is evident during his training, but when someone is depending on him for this, then he’ll become an ancient Olympic runner just to fulfill his goals.

“Chanyeol, hurry!” Baekhyun whispers harshly, flailing his arms around the mortal. In his hurry, Chanyeol knocks into Baekhyun, who just grabs his hand and pulls him towards the gate.

“And where do you two think are you going?”

The emperor and the mortal freeze on their tracks, and that’s not because of the Halleyians.

“H-Hello, Jongin,” Baekhyun greets with a timid smile.

“Your Highness,” the head of security bows towards the emperor. When he straightens up, he looks at the mortal and says, “Chanyeol, hello. You are alive.”

“Hello to you too, General Jongin,” the mortal murmurs.

“So… what business do you have sneaking out of the palace?”

Baekhyun and Chanyeol exchanges a nervous look before the emperor says, “I will accompany Chanyeol into finding a way back home.”

“I do not want to disrespect you, Your Highness, but that is no easy feat. Plus, that Sehun kid will definitely not like this.”

“Jongin, please–“

“Please,” Chanyeol says, stepping forward towards the man. “You people have been trapping the emperor in this palace for far too long. Just this once, I beg of you. Allow him to go out.”

The head of security sighs.

“Why are you so troublesome, Chanyeol?” he says as he scratches his head. “Fine, whatever. You owe me two now.”

The mortal hops on his feet excitedly.

“Thank you, General Jongin!” he says happily.

“Now off you go,” Jongin says, waving them off. “Bring back the emperor in one whole piece, please. You do not want to deal with the consequences if you lose our Solar Emperor.”

“I can take care of myself,” the emperor haughtily says, rolling his eyes. He has another snarky comment at the tip of his tongue but Chanyeol stops him by grabbing his hand and pulling him out into the world.

“This is so refreshing,” Baekhyun says, breathing in the galactic fumes hanging in the atmosphere. “I have not been out for such a long time.”

“Where do we even go first?” Chanyeol wonders, eyes straying around. They have only walked the first few meters, so there is not much to see since Chanyeol has seen everything so far.

“I know of a field,” Baekhyun says. “I think I can remember it being in the middle of a forest found at the east of the Solar Palace. It is brimming with power and magic, and I have heard Sehun discuss it with the other servants that it might be utilized to jump through worlds.”

“Is it far?” Chanyeol asks.

“Not really… but we may have to rest once while walking towards it.”

Silence ensues between them for the next few moments, with only the sound of their feet scrunching against the debris on the ground and the light thudding sounds of their hearts.

“Chanyeol… what is your story?”

The mortal looks to the side, meeting Baekhyun’s gaze. His eyes are a deep shade of brown, but they are so bright with diamonds in them.

Is it okay to tell Baekhyun about who he is and what his purpose is staying in this world?

_Tell him everything, just do not tell him of your purpose._

“I grew up with Fate dictating how the rest of my life will go,” Chanyeol begins. “All my life, I have been trained, prepared, meticulously nurtured so that I could successfully do what Fate wants me to. I dedicated my life to the good of all, and I never complained.”

He smiles bitterly as he gazes back at the emperor.

“I am not exactly a very interesting person.”

“That is as interesting as it gets, Chanyeol. What are you saying?” Baekhyun softly says, squeezing his hand. “No wonder I am so comfortable around you… we are somehow parallel, in a sense.”

Chanyeol gives him a look. “Oh? Tell me why.”

“Well,” the emperor sighs. “Just like you, Fate wanted me to be someone whose life will be dedicated for the good of all. I am in this position not because I want to, but because I was forced to. In fact, I–”

Baekhyun pauses abruptly, as if to prepare himself.

“–I am still not fulfilling the role I am meant to do. I am still actively going against what I need to do, and at the cost of many lives. But what can I do?” he smiles sadly. “I have lost hope.”

The emperor sounds so disappointed of himself, but Chanyeol did not know how to comfort him properly when it is obvious that he also did not want to tell him yet of what role he actually holds.

“Thinking of myself is something that I never had the privilege of giving to myself,” he blurts out. “I think it’s good that you thought of yourself.”

Baekhyun does not answer.

They keep on walking, with Chanyeol occasionally bringing a topic up. The more time he spends with the emperor, the more he loosens up and feels comfortable enough to let himself babble away like the talkative kid that he actually is.

“You know,” Chanyeol speaks up. “I have never really taken a moment to just stop and admire everything in this place but right now… wow, Baekhyun. This is such a beautiful world. Its existence defies the standards of perfection that we know of.”

The emperor chuckles. “It truly is such a wonderful world… if only it isn’t so bleak and dreary all the time.”

“Why would you describe it like that?”

Chanyeol did not really know where they are heading towards, fully trusting Baekhyun to guide the way since he is the one who knows this realm better, so it comes as a surprise when Baekhyun stops and he follows after him then he discovers that they are at the edge of a cliff that leads down to a milky dark blue darkness, stretching out for miles ahead of them.

“Don’t you see, Chanyeol?” Baekhyun whispers. “The Celestial Realm… it is beautiful, yet it holds such a melancholic atmosphere. When you are by yourself, you will feel how truly alone and empty you actually are in this vast universe.”

The emperor has so much lachrymose in his silent voice, thick and three-dimensional that it ebbs into Chanyeol and causes this dull ache in his chest.

Baekhyun looks up to the mortal.

“May I confess something?”

Chanyeol hums. “What is it?”

“The universe is a mysterious place. Its existence is a whole enigma that we will never be able to understand. I never really cared what it truly is and how it worked… until its cruel lover, Fate, pulled me out of the Terrarian Realm.”

Chanyeol’s eyes are blown in shock as he stares at the emperor. Those bright yet deep brown eyes, the jewels adorning his face, the simple perfection of what still remains as such a breathtaking beauty…

“Is it really so shocking to you?” Baekhyun chuckles, tapping his chin. Chanyeol closes his mouth which had been hanging open without him realizing.

“Nothing about you seems mortal, Your Highness…” Chanyeol says, stunned.

“It’s been several centuries, and I have grown accustomed to the Celestial Realm. And after all, I was half-mortal, half-celestial so…”

Chanyeol’s head is brimming with so much questions begging to leap out of his lips and to be answered. Baekhyun talks about how the universe is such a mysterious place, but Chanyeol could care less about that.

Not when he has a whole Emperor Baekhyun being such a mystery himself.

“Let’s go,” the emperor says, tugging at Chanyeol’s hand. “The field is near. If we move now, we can get there quick.”

They continue walking in comforting silence, with Chanyeol talking once in a while just like before. Not as much though because he is too busy delving in his hyperactive thoughts that have gone wild after Baekhyun’s confession. Is his life like in those ancient young adult novels that one of his friends enjoy reading, wherein the main character is actually the son of a mortal and god and he had to live his life as a demigod in the world of gods and goddesses in order to protect humanity from forces of evil? Is Baekhyun’s life like that, wherein he is just an ordinary human until something about his family heritage causes a stir in his system and thrusts him into a new world?

Chanyeol is so curious, but he could not just simply ask Baekhyun the answers to his questions. He can only know the answers if Baekhyun himself gave them.

The couple has covered quite a distance since Chanyeol could now feel his muscles starting to complain from exhaustion. Luckily, Baekhyun stops.

“We are here,” he says when he brushes away a huge leaf obscuring their view, revealing a wide field in the middle of the forestry. It is almost circular in shape, with grasses of diamond tinted with chlorophyll and the occasional wild padparadscha flowers growing among them.

“So much power…” Baekhyun breathes in as he closes his eyes and spreads his arms out. “Chanyeol, do you feel a connection to this place?”

The mortal did not know as he uncertainly follows after the emperor. He did not feel anything, nor does he even sense the power or magic that Baekhyun claims. The place does seem kind of familiar though, since it does seem similar to the place he first woke up in… but it does not give Chanyeol a special kind of feeling.

“I am not sure, Baekhyun…” he mutters as he darts his eyes around.

“I cannot remember anymore what portal I have taken before in order to come here,” Baekhyun murmurs. “This one is strong, but I do not think this is even a portal…”

 _Growl_.

Chanyeol’s eyes widen as his head snaps to his right, eyes straining to see through the dark area of the trees not illuminated enough by the glowing dust motes.

“D-Did you hear that?” the mortal asks in a hushed voice as he slowly inches towards Baekhyun who had strayed off to the far side of the field, crouching over to pick up a bright yellow topaz flower on the ground.

“Hear what, Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asks, looking up to Chanyeol from his position.

“A growl.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

_Roar!_

“Oh shit!” Baekhyun swears, jumping up to his feet and quickly grabbing Chanyeol by the back of his robes when a huge creature resembling a lion made of inky black clouds jumped from the darkness, baring its white, glassy fangs at them as it makes a dangerous, guttural sound.

“W-What–”

“Chanyeol, it’s high time we run if you do not want us to end up being a meal!”

The moment they break out into a run, the beast follows close behind, growling at them as it darts through the forest in sudden bursts, which makes it conveniently slow, allowing Chanyeol and Baekhyun to put a considerable distance between them and the creature. If it had been faster, then they would have died by now.

“What was that?!” Chanyeol shouts in terror, panting slightly as he tries to match Baekhyun’s fast feet.

“It was a varmint, an embodiment of basically the nastiest things that could exist in this realm,” Baekhyun says as he pushes Chanyeol down under a thick bush, having him curl up before he follows after him and curls up against him.

“We’ll let it past before we move on,” the emperor whispers.

“I am stupid, I should have asked for a weapon from Jongin,” Chanyeol murmurs in frustration. “Baekhyun, I am sorry. Because of me, our lives are in danger.”

“Does not matter,” Baekhyun says. “We are both at fault here, no one needs to apologize. All we have to do is stay–”

He suddenly stops, putting a hand over his mouth and on Chanyeol, whose hands quickly shoot up to hold Baekhyun’s wrist.

The emperor widens his eyes, moving his head up as heavy breathing comes from right above them.

_It is here._

Chanyeol is not a religious person. He does not worship any god yet at that moment, with his heart pounding so hard in his chest, he prays to every god in existence, asking for protection and if anyone answers him, he wishes for them to identify themselves so he would know which god he’d be a devout to. That’s how desperate he is. This is a matter of life and death.

They remain like that for a long stretch of time that Chanyeol’s limbs are starting to grow numb from ill-movement. A little while later, Baekhyun decides to move. He lifts a finger up to his lips in a shushing movement before he straightens up to check.

Chanyeol suddenly grabs his hand and pulls him down.

“W-What if it is still there?” he whispers nervously

Baekhyun smiles at him reassuringly as he shakes his hold away from him.

“I will be okay.”

Chanyeol whimpers nervously as he watches Baekhyun slowly straighten up to look over the bush. He stays like that for a few moments before he tugs at Chanyeol’s sleeve.

“It is gone now. Let us go on our way back to the palace. We are not safe here anymore with that thing on the prowl.”

Chanyeol is relieved that Baekhyun finally decides that today’s conquest is enough, although there definitely is a part of him that is disappointed of the fact that they could not find a reliable place that they can consider as a portal. Will there even be a next time for an adventure like this today, when the palace has probably figured out that their beloved emperor is nowhere within its walls?

After covering a couple more kilometers, Chanyeol suddenly feels something. It is a low buzzing sensation that spreads over the mortal’s skin, pulling him towards a certain direction.

“Chanyeol, where are you going?” Baekhyun asks when he notices that he had let go of his hand.

The mortal does not reply. He is in a trance, eyes clouded yet focused on the direction that he is walking towards with sure footsteps.

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun calls out, running after him. He pulls at his robes, trying to make him stop, but the mortal simply pushes him away.

“I am sorry, Your Highness,” Chanyeol says. “But it’s calling to me…”

“What is calling out to you?”

Chanyeol does not answer. Instead, he keeps on walking and walking until finally, he reaches it. 

“A lake?” Baekhyun speaks from behind him. “Why have I not seen this before?”

“I-I know this place…” the mortal murmurs when his eyes drift over the whole area. The trees, the surrounding shores, the lake of melted sapphire with stars swimming in its calm waves… it is the mirror of the one lake that he had fell in two times back in his realm.

“I feel very powerful magic in this place, maybe even more powerful than the field,” Baekhyun murmurs, closing his eyes as he breathes in deeply. “So much raw magic… Chanyeol, you might want to… Chanyeol?”

The emperor sees the mortal going down on his fours, staring intently down at the clear blue waters.

“Baekhyun, this is a portal.”

“How are you so sure?” Baekhyun says, looking over his shoulder. “You woke up in a field, right? This world functions like a parallel to other worlds. You cannot be transported into a lake if you have woken up in a field. It must be a direct counterpart.”

“No, I am sure this is it.”

A familiar sound comes from a distance. It was a growl, probably coming from the beast that had chased them earlier. Baekhyun looks fearfully at the mortal and says, “The varmint is closing in on us. It will catch up with us soon. Chanyeol, we should definitely be on our merry way now–”

“I need to go back, Baekhyun.”

“What?! Chanyeol–”

The mortal rushes over to the emperor. He takes his hand and with a desperate look across his face, he says, “Please Baekhyun, I beg of you,” he pleads. “Just a few seconds, I will see if it is a portal.”

“But what if it is not? I will not allow you to see me fighting.”

“Why–”

Another growl comes, and it is getting closer.

“Ah, shit!” Baekhyun swears as he turns around and pushes Chanyeol away.  “Go, quickly. Pray that it truly is a portal so you could go back to your realm. I will handle this.”

Chanyeol nods erratically then runs towards the lake. Without even stripping off his clothes, he jumps into the water. But before he dives in, he looks over his shoulder.

Something suddenly pulls Chanyeol down under, and he only gets to see how a fiery shade of orange bleeds through Baekhyun’s blonde hair as he bursts out into a bright burning aura before the waters finally eat him up.

Unlike the first times that Chanyeol had been swallowed by the lake in his world wherein he has been driven unconscious, this time he maintains his grasp of reality. It makes him dizzy as he passes through what seems like a whirlpool that bends space and time, tossing and turning him around before everything finally comes at peace.

Until… everything stops.

Slowly, Chanyeol swims his way back to the surface despite the dizziness and disorientation caused by the portal. When he reaches the surface, a rush of relief and excitement shoots through his system.

“I am back…” Chanyeol whispers under his breath. “I am home… I am back…”

It was tempting, the want to get out of the water and dash back home where his mother and father are, probably hoping and waiting for his return. Chanyeol wants to see his parents, he wants to see his sister Yoora and her sons, and he wants to see his friends.

But the image of a fearful and troubled Emperor Baekhyun flashes in his mind, and he remembers why he cannot just easily go back home.

With him in danger and the Sun still not up in the sky, going back home is an option that Chanyeol cannot resort to.

Swimming closer towards the shore, Chanyeol unearths a piece of paper from within his robes. It is a letter that he had written for his parents about his last goodbye and how they should live their life according to how they want it to be, never like how Chanyeol had only been dictated about everything, never free to do anything for himself. The letter is now wet and he hopes to god that the letters aren’t too smudged.

Chanyeol puts the paper on the shore and covers it with stones. When he is done, he sets up a little pole in order for people to see his letter and hopefully bring it to his parents.

“I will be back,” Chanyeol declares under his breath, eyes taking his last glimpse of the Terrarian Realm before he plunges back into the dark water.

When he comes back, Chanyeol nearly gets a heart attack when he is greeted by the sight of Baekhyun laying on the ground, eyes closed and breathing shallow. In a shot of panic, he bolts out of the water, rushing towards the emperor as fast as his soaked robe would allow him to go.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol gasps in horror as he hovers over his body. He places his hands on his chest then tries shaking him awake. He hates himself so much for leaving Baekhyun alone to fight that varmint, endangering his life just because of his selfish reasons.

Slowly, Baekhyun opens his eyes, blinking up at Chanyeol who cries out in relief and pulls him up to embrace him to his chest.

“Chanyeol… why did you come back?” Baekhyun whispers weakly.

“I am so sorry!” he wails as he buries his face into his shoulder. “I should not have left you behind like that I-I should have–”

“I am not weak, Chanyeol. Do you think lowly of me?”

Chanyeol gasps, letting go of Baekhyun as he dips down in an apologetic bow.

“T-That’s not what I mean, I-I just–”

The emperor places a hand on his head then ruffles his dark hair.

“I am just messing with you,” Baekhyun laughs gently. “But Chanyeol… why did you come back?”

The mortal lifts his head up and looks to the side, unsure of what to say.

“W-Well…” he purses his lips. “I-I actually still have a purpose... in this world…”

Baekhyun perks his eyebrows up.

“Your purpose… you need to fulfill it in this realm?”

Chanyeol nods.

“Yes, and I can’t go back if I do not fulfill it.”

“Are you going to tell me what it is?”

Chanyeol smiles. “General Jongin already told me you celestials have lost hope with it.”

Baekhyun furrows his eyebrows. “Why, what is it?”

“I have been tasked to bring back the Sun.”

Baekhyun falls silent as he simply stares at the mortal.

“I have been trained and conditioned so I can be prepared for the task.” Chanyeol is breathless for some reason. “It is what I have dedicated my whole life to and I cannot just leave this place without finding the Sun.”

The emperor opens his mouth to say something, but he is disrupted.

“So this is where the two of you have been canoodling, I see.”

The couple gasps as they shoot away from each other. In front of them stood two men with grey eyes, pale skins that had a bluish iridescence and icy blue jewels marking one side of their faces. One of them, the shorter of the couple, wore a big crown of royal sapphire.

_Are these the Halleyians that they speak of?_

“Jongdae, Minseok!” Baekhyun shouts as he stands up to his feet, grabbing hold of Chanyeol’s robes to pull him up to his feet.

“Aha!” the one without a crown yells as he points accusingly at Baekhyun. “So this is why you took a mortal under your wing this time! You want to do the wild and naughty with him, don’t you?”

“What?” Baekhyun yells, looking scandalized while Chanyeol could only stare, dumbfounded.

“Don’t you dare lie! His wet visage explains everything!”

“Stop saying such weird things, Jongdae!” Baekhyun yells, covering his ears.

“You, mortal,” the man named Jongdae points at Chanyeol. “Baekhyun is sexually frustrated after centuries of abstinence from sexual intercourse. Do not get yourself entangled in his trap.”

Chanyeol’s ears turn a beet red, flustered out of his wits.

“Stop telling Chanyeol lies!” Baekhyun wails. “I am  _not_  sexually frustrated, I do not care for physical pleasure–”

“Now now, let us all be at peace,” the one with the sapphire crown calmly says, stepping forward. “Sehun is terribly worried of you, Baekhyun. I suggest we go back; I do not want to see him throwing a tantrum.”

“I wasn’t canoodling with Chanyeol, Minseok,” Baekhyun pouts, hiding behind the taller man.

“We know, Jongdae was just messing with you,” the man named Minseok chuckles. “Now, shall we go?”

Chanyeol turns to Baekhyun, who nods as he places an arm on the small of his back and urges him to follow the other two men.

“Those are the Halleyians, by the way,” Baekhyun murmurs from his side. “The ugly loudmouth is Lord Jongdae while the one with the crown is King Minseok.”

Chanyeol’s mouth forms into an ‘o’.

The walk back seems shorter, what with them being distracted by Jongdae arguing with Baekhyun. When they reach the palace, Chanyeol is attacked by guilt at the sight of so many of the palace guards scrambling around in an erratic search for their emperor.

“Hear, hear, Solareans!” Jongdae booms with an unbelievably loud voice, arms spread out towards the guards at the gate. “Be at peace, cease the search. We have come with your emperor.”

Chanyeol sees General Jongin rushing towards them with Kyungsoo by his side, looking relieved.

“Thank the heavens you are alive Your Highness, Chanyeol,” he breathes, massaging his chest.

“He is only relieved because Sehun wouldn’t have to execute him,” Kyungsoo says before the general elbows him.

“I will talk to Sehun,” Baekhyun says, brushing past everyone and entering the palace, with Chanyeol following after him along with the Halleyians.

“Your Highness!” Sehun cries when he sees Baekhyun and the others. “You nearly gave me a heart attack! Why are you cruel?”

“I am sorry,” Baekhyun says, dipping his head apologetically.

“An apology will not suffice!” Sehun announces with authority. “Come Your Highness, let us talk with the palace council. And you,” he points at Chanyeol. “Go to your room. I will have someone bring you food.”

Chanyeol nods. He gives Baekhyun one last smile before he turns around to head back to his room.

 

☆彡

 

_Entry #2_

_Today the emperor and I snuck out. I did not want to because he stressed how dangerous it would be, but he was adamant about going out. I couldn’t really say no, so we did it. We managed to sneak out even when General Jongin caught us. We talked about a lot of things on the way, and I think I’ve never felt this close to someone who I just met before. We went to this field that he had heard is a place that can be used to jump through worlds, but we did not stay for long because a Varmint appeared. We managed to escape. On our way back to the palace, I felt a weird tug, and it led me towards this strange lake that looked very similar to the lake back in the Terrarian Realm. I jumped in and saw that it does lead back to my world. I hate myself for leaving Baekhyun alone to fight… and I am curious why he does not want me to see him fighting._

_In the end, we managed to get out unharmed, but at the cost of the Halleyians’ teasing and Sehun getting mad._

 

☆彡

_Knock. Knock._

Chanyeol stops randomly writing things in his journal and looks up to the door.

“Please come in!”

Upon swinging open, Sehun enters the room, looking very troubled as he quickly rushes towards the mortal.

“Sir Chanyeol, I need your help,” the servant says urgently, grabbing the man by the shoulders.

“When?” Chanyeol asks. “Like, right now?”

“Yes,” Sehun says, nodding. “I want you to go to Emperor Baekhyun and talk to him. He is mad at me and he has been locking himself in his room.”

“Why would he be mad at you?”

“I have no idea! I do not fully understand how his brain works. So please,” the servant claps his hands together. “I beg of you, do something about the emperor.”

“Okay, okay,” Chanyeol grunts as he pushes himself up to his feet. “I will see what I can do about him.”

Moments later, Chanyeol finds himself standing in front of the emperor’s chambers, his fist poised over the surface of the door. He has another servant with him, pushing a cart filled with food since Baekhyun supposedly has not eaten yet.

What will Chanyeol even say to the emperor? Is he even close enough to him? Yesterday they were brought together by the circumstances, but what about now? What if Baekhyun is the type of person to distance himself when a new day comes, completely forgetting about what he had been through yesterday with him?

Every bit of him is unsure, but Chanyeol eventually pushes away his inhibitions, having been taught all his life that letting something stop you will not take you anywhere.

_Knock. Knock._

It takes quite a while to receive a response that Chanyeol nearly gives up halfway to turn around and give Sehun a negative report, if not for the hushed, kind of grumpy voice that resonates from within the room.

_“Who is there?”_

“Baekhyun, do you want to build a snowman?” he starts, using lyrics from an old song.

_“Minseok and Jongdae will not be back until tomorrow, there won’t be snow today.”_

“Come on, let’s go and play!”

_“I can’t go out…”_

“I never see you anymore– _”_

_“I was here yesterday…?”_

“–Come out the door, it’s like you’ve gone away!”

 _“Who are you?!”_  the emperor roars out, obviously irritated by now.

“It’s Chanyeol.”

There’s a silence.

_“O-Oh… What are you doing here?”_

“To see you?”

Another round of silence.

_“Do you want to come in?”_

“May I?”

Chanyeol twists the handle of the door then pushes it open, with the servant following after him. His eyes dart around out of curiosity of what a royal chamber would look like before his eyes find their way towards the emperor.

There he is, on the ground surrounded by what appears to be a messy attempt at making a pillow fort, with at least four big pillows stacked up on each side and a blanket covering half of the top. He is not in his usual grand attire, only clad in silken white robes, looking so much like a child while lying there on the ground protected by pillows. The only hint that he is the emperor is the crown on top of his head.

“Hi, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun weakly greets as he flips himself over his chest to look up at the mortal. “What brings you here to my humble abode?”

“Sehun told me to check up on you,” Chanyeol says then he gestures towards the cart. “And I brought food.” He gestures for the servant to park the cart to the side then dismisses him with a thank you.

“Why does he want to check up on me?” Baekhyun grumbles distastefully.

Chanyeol sits on the floor with his legs crossed, facing the emperor. “Because you are mad and locking yourself in here because of him. Maybe he is feeling a bit guilty.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and huffs as he puts his head down. Groaning loudly, he suddenly flails around in a momentary tantrum that ended as quickly as it started.

“Oh yes he is damn right that I am mad. Sehun closed off the whole palace for ten of my risings as punishment and I could only go out if he accompanies me! Of course I am angry!” Baekhyun whines out. “Why on earth does that kid seem to have more power over me than I, the actual emperor of the Solar Empire himself?! So annoying!”

Chanyeol hides the amused smile across his face by crossing one arm over his chest and then folding another with his fist covering his lips.

“I am always so bored to death in this damned place,” Baekhyun sighs in despair. “Chanyeol, help me. Do your job. Ease my boredom, I cannot take this.”

Chanyeol stands up and pulls the cart closer to Baekhyun’s pillow fort.

“Well,” he says. “I brought some food and maybe I could read some books for you.”

“What kind of books?”

“Fairytales…?”

Baekhyuns scrunches his nose.

“Do you think I’m a child?”

Chanyeol nervously giggles as he scratches his head.

“W-Well I could not find anything else since t-these are apparently the only b-books in here so I’m sorry–”

Baekhyun chuckles, making the mortal fall into an abrupt pause.

“It’s amusing to see you flustered,” the emperor says. He then scoots to the side of his little fort, making space to his right. Patting the spot, he adds, “Come here and read me those books, I find your voice very appealing.”

Cheeks blooming at the nice comment (or should he take it as a compliment?), Chanyeol slowly begins transferring the food down on to the floor, with Baekhyun quickly reaching out to take a bite. Next comes the piles of books that he had brought along with him. After all of those are ready, Chanyeol slips into the spot next to Baekhyun.

Much to his surprise, the moment he lies next to the emperor, Baekhyun welcomes him well by scooting closer to him and leaning against his shoulder. Wide-eyed, Chanyeol turns his head to the side and is instantly greeted by the sweet scent of Baekhyun’s hair and the dull heat coming from his crown. The familiarity that the emperor has developed for Chanyeol causes this warm feeling to spread deep in his heart, and it makes him want to get closer to Baekhyun. They only met, but the quick familiarity did not feel weird at all.

If anything, it felt so natural. Like being close to each other is meant to be.

“Have you eaten?” Baekhyun wonders as he pulls the food closer to him.

“Yes I have–” Chanyeol is disrupted by the emperor suddenly shoving a soft jewel into his mouth.

“Does it taste good for you?” Baekhyun asks, trying hard not to crack up at Chanyeol’s astonished face, who in stunned silence chews through the jewel that turns out tasting like those plain but tasty bread his mother buys from the bakery every morning.

“Ih dush,” Chanyeol answers, which actually means ‘It does’ but because his mouth is full, he couldn’t enunciate the words well.

“You are very endearing, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun sighs, suddenly reaching out to brush a stray lock of raven hair behind his ear that immediately causes his ears to turn red. Ignoring the mortal’s fluster, Baekhyun grabs a spare pillow, hugging it to his chest as he flips over and lies on his back once more. Looking up to Chanyeol, he says, “Read me one of those fairy tales, hurry. You have to satisfy me by being creative.”

Chanyeol feels nervous again as he picks up a book. Even though he has quite a lot of experience reading fairy tales to his sister’s children, he cannot help it but feel burdened because amusing a child is easier than amusing someone he can consider as a man child.

“This is the romance between two princes.”

The emperor groans as he waves his hands.

“That sounds so typical,” he says with a huff.

“You have not even listened to it yet,” Chanyeol chides him softly, earning him a little nose scrunch from the emperor. “Listen to me, okay?”

Baekhyun nods obediently this time.

The story Chanyeol tells the emperor is about how two princes are separated because of war between their kingdoms. There is an old saying about how you must let go of a love you truly hold dear and if they come back, it is meant to be, and this is what the two princes did. They rely their love on fate and just let the circumstances happen. But horrible things happen during war, and because their love is too strong, they do meet once again – but it is already in the battlefield, bloodied and at Death’s door.

“W-What kind of fairytale was that?” Baekhyun breaks out into a sob, much to Chanyeol’s surprise.

“Your Highness!” he cries out, putting down the book and immediately reaching out to the man. “I-I’m sorry, I-I–“

“D-Don’t touch me…” the emperor continues to sob, his face red and his eyes droopier than usual with tears streaming down his cheeks.

“It is just a story, I did not mean to–”

“Get out.”

“I’m sorry–”

“GET OUT!”

Looking so much like a kicked puppy, Chanyeol quickly shoots up to his feet, head dipped down as he leaves the emperor alone.

 

☆彡

 

_Entry #3_

_Today, I fucked up and I do not know why._

 

☆彡

 

Baekhyun did not mean to snap at Chanyeol like that. He knows it was too harsh and the mortal is just trying his best, but he could not help it. The story’s ending is too much; it brought back so many memories that he had tried his best to forget about and it made intense emotions well up inside him in such a strong magnitude that it rocked his composure and by the time Chanyeol left, he shrunk into himself and cried while in a fetal position in his pillow fort.

The last thing he wants is for Chanyeol to see him breaking down pathetically like this.

_“Do not leave me! You promised! You promised me forever! You promised eternity with me!”_

_“I am sorry, Baekhyun… maybe this just means we are not truly fated to be together. Maybe I just do not deserve you.”_

_“Do not say that, you bastard!”_

_“I love you, Baekhyun…”_

_“Do not close your eyes! Do not dare close your eyes!”_

_“I am sorry Baekhyun… Shine bright for me, please?”_

_“Damn you!”_

_“I will meet you… in another life, let us be together.”_

The emperor feels more tears brimming out of his eyes as sob after sob hits him like a strong wave, driving him into hysterics as he curls up evem more into a fetal position.

That damned fairytale and the fact that Baekhyun sees  _him_ in Chanyeol…

 

☆彡

 

“Does the emperor still not want to see you?”

Chanyeol huffs, frowning even more as he turns around to face the guard. It has been four of Baekhyun’s risings since the last time he saw him and not once did the emperor even go out of his room. Only Sehun and other servants come into his room once in a while to deliver food. He is very worried about Baekhyun’s reclusion, but Sehun told him this was nothing new so he should not be so worried.

Chanyeol cannot help it, though.

“I do not even know,” he murmurs, looking so dejected as he sighs. “I do not want to be yelled at again. He is scary.”

Kyungsoo chuckles as he leans against the rails. “It is interesting to see the emperor actually show some emotions. Before you came, he is nothing more than a mere limp vegetable.”

“You are over exaggerating.”

“It is true, you know,” the guard says. “A lot of things happened to him in the past, and I am afraid no one can tell you about it aside from the emperor himself but do know that ever since your arrival, he has been doing better than the past centuries. We are… we are thankful of your presence.”

Chanyeol nods, smiling softly, feeling so empowered by Kyungsoo’s sincere little speech.

“I want him to constantly only be happy, Kyungsoo,” he says. “Maybe I will just wait for another rising then I will finally approach him.”

Kyungsoo reaches out and pats his back, a bit too hard that it pushes the oxygen out of Chanyeol’s lungs a bit.

“Goodluck with that. Maybe try and get to sleep with the emperor too.”

“Wait what-”

“KYUNGSOO!”

The guard rolls his eyes and looks over his shoulder. Barreling towards their direction is the general, arms crossed and pouting.

“What are you doing being so chummy with the mortal?” Jongin says as he puts an arm over his shoulder.

“Nothing, I am trying to make up his mind about hooking up with the emperor,” Kyungsoo deadpans. “And could you get your ugly hands off me? Please, thank you.”

Chanyeol only watches the couple banter, completely ignoring his presence. He starts to wonder if the two have some sort of relationship together, and it is confirmed when, to his horror, the general suddenly swipes in for a kiss but ends up with Kyungsoo punching him in the gut and dragging him away.

“Those two have a terrible way of displaying their affection for each other.”

Frost seems to crawl up even under the thick robes that Chanyeol dons, and he does not even have to see to know who had arrived to bring such a sudden cold.

“Hello King Minseok, Lord Jongdae,” he greets, bowing respectfully towards the Halleyians.

“Well-mannered, no wonder Baekhyun likes you so much,” the Halleyian King comments.

Chanyeol feels his face heating up, and he hopes there aren’t much glowing dust motes near his face because it would be embarrassing for the others to see how red he is. Why do these people even push him to the emperor? Sure, Baekhyun is very handsome and ethereal but he does not seem like the type to fall for someone like him, as sad as that sounds.

“Baekhyun still likes me more,” Jongdae smugly declares.

“You do not make Baekhyun smile, you only push him to the edge of crying because of your teasing,” King Minseok chides him, but the other Halleyian does not even look the least bit sorry.

“Where is Baekhyun anyway?” Jongdae wonders. “I thought he would be with you.”

Chanyeol scratches his temple. “He kind of does not want to see me right now.”

“Oh? What happened the past few risings?”

“I was reading him this story and I made him cry.”

Jongdae suddenly jolts forward, face showing his passive aggressive anger. “Why you little-” but before he could even touch Chanyeol, the Halleyian King reaches forward and generates a wall of ice between his companion and the mortal, making Jongdae end up slamming into the hard wall.

“Oww!” the Halleyian cries out as he stumbles back, holding his face. “Hey, that hurts so much! And you!” He waves a hand, making the ice melt then evaporate as he points at Chanyeol. “How dare you make our precious Baekhyun cry?!”

“I am sure he did not mean it Jongdae,” Minseok tries to calm him down.

“Oh really now?”

“I was just reading him a fairytale,” Chanyeol silently says. “I did not know he would easily cry because the ending is sad…”

“You have to apologize to him immediately,” Jongdae says. “He is locking himself up because he probably feels ashamed to see you. Baekhyun is prideful, he does not want other people to see his misery even if it is already so evident.”

“Jongdae…” the king murmurs.

“What? It is true.”

Chanyeol falls silent as he looks away. He never saw it that way. Baekhyun is an emperor, he probably developed a lot of pride and for someone like him to see him crying…

“Now I feel so guilty.”

“Don’t listen to Jongdae, he speaks nonsense,” Minseok reassures him.

“Honey, I am right here.”

“But anyway, I heard you and Baekhyun found a portal,” the king says, ignoring his companion. “Why did you not go back to the Terrarian Realm? Why are you still here? Do not get me wrong though, I am just curious. I am not trying to get rid of you or something.”

“I understand,” Chanyeol nods. “I am still here because I actually have a task.”

“Ooh, ooh! What kind of task?” Jongdae wonders, grey eyes bright with curiosity.

Chanyeol is a bit hesitant. Is it okay to tell this people? It does not feel right going around telling everyone what his goal is, but there is nothing wrong about telling them, right? If anything, it could help him.

“Fate has tasked me to bring back the Sun to humanity.”

The cheerful expression on the Halleyians’ faces immediately melted away into stunned silence, taken aback.

“T-The Sun?” Jongdae stammers. “D-Did I hear that right?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol says. “Everyone says it is useless though. The Sun himself does not want to be seen again, but I cannot just give up.”

“Ah, they are right,” Minseok quickly says.  _Too_ quickly. “I am not telling you to give up searching, though. It is just…” He exchanges glances with Jongdae. “…a very hard thing to accomplish.”

Chanyeol dips his head. “Ah, I see.”

“Sorry, Chanyeol.”

“It’s okay,” he waves his hand. “I will worry about the Sun later. Right now, I need to make Baekhyun talk to me.”

“He is a hopeless romantic, do something that makes his heart go  _badump badump_.”

Chanyeol blushes again. “Why are you all adamant to pair me up with Baekhyun?”

Jongdae steps forward and grabs Chanyeol by the lapel of his robes. “Look me in the eye and tell me you are not attracted to Baekhyun.”

The mortal looks up shyly at Jongdae, eyes flickering to his grey irises before he looks away.

“I’m right, aren't I?” the Halleyian smugly says as he lets go of him. “Anyway, what do you have in mind?”

Chanyeol sighs. This is not part of his plan. So he does like Baekhyun, great, but what difference does that make? Wooing him is just a waste of time because in the end, Chanyeol does not belong here and he is going to leave soon.

“I know that face,” Jongdae says. “That is the face of someone not agreeing with us.”

“Lord Jongdae–”

“Listen, you don’t have to take this seriously,” Jongdae says. “You can just do this for the sake of making Baekhyun happy. Maybe for your own happiness too. You can’t just always think about your mission. Relax and enjoy your time here.”

“Are you psychic?” Chanyeol chuckles. “You seem to know exactly what I’m thinking about.”

“Jongdae takes pleasure in his ability to easily read people and manipulate them,” Minseok smiles as he places an arm around Jongdae’s waist.

“That sounds so threatening.”

“I do not manipulate people – I  _help_  them, for your information,” Jongdae defends himself.

“Well… do you think a picnic in the middle of the garden is romantic enough? I am very inexperienced in this sort of thing…”

“That’s romantic enough,” Minseok confirms, nodding his head in agreement. “All we need is to get Sehun’s permission and we’ll be good to go.”

Chanyeol does not know what the hell he is doing now, but he is going to do it anyway.

 

☆彡

 

_“BAEKHYUN! OPEN UP OR I’M GOING TO BREAK IN!”_

Groaning drowsily, Baekhyun crawls out of his now-ruined pillow fort, face screwing up in irritation at the malevolent energy exuded by the person right outside of his room.

“What do you want?!” he screams from halfway out of the pillow fort.

“I’m sorry about Jongdae, he is just excited,” comes the Halleyian King's gentle voice. “But Baekhyun, could you open the door? We will help you dress up, something important is coming up.”

“For what?”

“It is a secret! You will like it, I promise.”

Baekhyun does not feel like dealing with people right now, but he thinks maybe it is best to finally come out after what, almost six risings of not actually rising from his pillow fort aside to just eat? And besides, he does want to see Chanyeol and apologize for being so ridiculously emotional last time. He wants to see those round hazel eyes once more.

“Oh heavens you look ugly,” Jongdae says, screwing his face in distaste when Baekhyun opens the door, revealing his bed junkie countenance.

“I’m sorry, I can’t be bothered to upkeep myself when I am over here feeling so goddamn depressed and embarrassed,” Baekhyun grumbles haughtily as he steps outside, closes the door behind him and follows the Halleyians accompanied by some servants to the bath house.

“Are you people not going to tell me what the hell you are up to?” Baekhyun asks while he is being washed in the pool.

“It is a secret,” Jongdae winks. “You will like it a lot.”

Why are they so confident that Baekhyun will like it? He is so curious now. Does this also involve Chanyeol?

The sudden thought makes Baekhyun feel a bit giddy and equally nervous. All kinds of things start to play out in his mind, wondering what they would come up with concerning the mortal.

The servants dress Baekhyun up in one of the most splendid robes that he has in his wardrobe. They then fix his hair and rub all kinds of soothing essences on his face and skin until he almost feels like a brand new person, far from the hermit that he had been his past few risings and back to the regal emperor that he truly is.

“You look like the true star that you are,” Minseok says with a soft smile that instead of feeling triggered about the statement, Baekhyun just smiles back.

“This thing you are planning…” the emperor says. “Does this involve Chanyeol?”

“Oh, and why would you think so? Do you think Chanyeol likes you enough to prepare something for you?” Jongdae mockingly says, earning him a pinch to the side from the Hallleyian King.

“Of course he would!” Baekhyun pouts as he rolls his eyes.

“Why, you are not even good-looking!”

“So what?!” Baekhyun yells. “Chanyeol called me a meteor shower the first time we met!”

“Liar! The first time you met you threw him out because you are so bitter!”

Annoyed, Baekhyun growls and launches himself on Jongdae, who laughs out loud despite being choked by the emperor with two of his hands around his neck.

“Stop it, you two!” Minseok cries out, prying Baekhyun’s hold off of his companion. “Jongdae! Why can you not just close your mouth for once?! You do not have to rile Baekhyun up every time!”

“I was just joking!”

“Well your humor is not great!” Baekhyun huffs, rolling his eyes.

“Whatever!” Jongdae says. He then grabs Baekhyun’s shoulder and turns him towards the garden. The emperor immediately sees a path lit up by glowing pink tourmalines, leading away deeper into the garden.

“Off you go!” Jongdae says, pushing Baekhyun down the path, nearly making him stumble so he looks over his shoulder and glares at him.

“Have fun!” Minseok bids, waving at him.

Baekhyun waves back then looks straight ahead, making careful steps down the pink tourmalines. His heart is beating so fast in anticipation, and it was amazing. He has never felt so alive in so long, having this sort of buzz in his veins and his blood seemingly on fire.

As he reaches deeper into the garden, Baekhyun starts seeing butterflies with their wide crystalline wings that glow and produce prismatic projections light. More and more appear as he reaches the end of the path.

Baekhyun finally stops.

At the end of the path is Chanyeol lying on a blanket spread over the grass, legs across each other and his arms folded to cushion his head. There is a gentle smile across his lips as he stares up at the cloud of butterflies right above him, bodies crystalline with different colors of glowing gems attached to their wings. When he reaches out, a single butterfly hovers over him before settling on his finger.

“Chanyeol.”

The mortal flinches in surprise, causing the butterfly to fly sway, startled. Tension seeps through his frame as he immediately sits up and gives the emperor a smile.

“H-Hey, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol greets nervously, laughing nervously. “I-I prepared a little picnic… for you…”

So simple, so sappy, yet Baekhyun finds his heart racing like an idiot.

“Thank you,” the emperor answers graciously as he walks over and sits next to Chanyeol, who tenses even more at the close proximity of their shoulders, sides and thighs brushing against each other.

“Chanyeol, you don’t have to be so anxious.”

“I-I’m sorry…” he immediately apologizes, shoulders sagging as he loses tension. “I’m just… I’m sorry… I-I’m supposed to apologize but I don’t know anymore… I’m nervous…”

“Chanyeol, hug me.”

The mortal stares at the emperor, searching for answers on his face, trying to comprehend if he was serious or not.

“What are you staring at?” Baekhyun haughtily says. “Come, give it to me already.”

Chanyeol uncertainly reaches out, scooping Baekhyun into his arms then gently pulls him against his chest. The emperor immediately sighs as he melts against the mortal, enjoying his wonderful scent and the warmth that he offers.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you,” Baekhyun murmurs as he runs his face against his chest, snuggling even closer into his heat. “I did not mean to… I just remembered something unpleasant.”

“I should be the one apologizing for making you cry.”

“It is nothing–”

“I never want to see you cry again, Baekhyun.”

The emperor leans away, smiling up at the mortal with fondness conspicuous enough to be seen in his eyes.

 “You are so sweet, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun tilts his head to the side. “So much like  _him._ ”

“ _Him…_ ” Chanyeol leans forward, suddenly closing in the space between them. Baekhyun’s eyes are wide, surprised at the sudden close proximity. “Why do you keep on saying that? Who is that  _him_ you keep on talking about ever since we first met?”

The emperor purses his lips. I-It’s no one–”

“No one yet you always say how much I’m like  _him_. Say, Baekhyun, how much do I resemble  _him_?”

“Almost everything…” he murmurs, uncomfortably. “It’s too strange…”

Chanyeol hums.

“So I remind you of an old love.”

The emperor blushes deeply as he twiddles with his thumb.

“You know, I’m a different person.”

Chanyeol’s voice drops to a lower tone, suggestive and alluring as he gives the emperor a little one-sided smile. “But I bet I’m more visually charming.”

Baekhyun gasps as he playfully punches the mortal’s arm.

“Where is my gentle Chanyeol and what did you do to him?”

The mortal gives him a little impish grin as he quickly goes back to his timid form. “I’m sorry, I was just curious about that person.”

“You didn’t have to act like that.”

“Did it bother you?”

“Not really…”

“I am still sorry.” Chanyeol suddenly reaches out and tucks a stray lock of blond hair behind Baekhyun’s ear, smiling tenderly. “Just forget about it. Shall we eat?”

“I know you are a different person from him, Chanyeol.”

The mortal stops halfway from opening the basket containing their food.

“You are definitely more hardheaded and stubborn than him, I am just afraid that this parallelism and resemblance might affect even how you end up…”

“Why,” Chanyeol scrunches his eyebrows together. “What happened to that person?”

The emperor looks away.

“He left me.”

Baekhyun glances up at Chanyeol, who is wearing this mildly entertaining guilty expression on his face that seems to imply that he should not have just said anything.

“Hey, why are you looking at me like that?” the emperor laughs, putting a hand on the mortal’s thigh and gently squeezing it.

“I should not have pried. I’m sorry, I keep on messing up with you.”

The emperor laughs. “Don’t be, it is okay. I am comfortable talking about it. I actually want to come clean with you about it so you would understand why I snapped like that before. But are  _you_ comfortable about hearing my sob love story?”

“Just don’t make me cry.”

Baekhyun laughs bitterly again as he looks down at his fingers.

“Then I won’t delve into the details.”

Chanyeol hands him a plate of amethyst cake, looking very anxious. “You don’t have to push yourself into telling me.”

“I told you, I want to tell you- oh wow, this is so good!” Baekhyun scoops up a spoonful of the cake. He leads it up to Chanyeol’s lips, slightly tipping the spoon against the plump flesh then says, “Open up.”

“It’s good,” Chanyeol laughs shyly as he chews the cake.

“Anyway, it’s just a simple love story between us,” Baekhyun says, munching on the cake. “We loved each other so much, we thought we were meant to be. We were sure of it. Well… until Fate decided to be a bastard and made him leave me behind.”

“O-Oh…” Chanyeol mumbles.

“Love is dead for the pawns of Fate,” the emperor sighs. “I seem like a bitter asshole now, don’t I?”

“You will always be lovely to me,” the mortal sighs as he props his arms up on his knees then puts his chin on his palms.

“Did you even listen to what I just said?”

“Everyone of us are ill-fated with love one way or another,” Chanyeol says. “And when we are torn, we can always find a fix.”

“I have not,” Baekhyun mutters.  _For thousands of years now._

“Maybe it’s me that you’ve been waiting for?” Chanyeol cheekily winks.

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. “Are you attempting to flirt with me, Chanyeol?”

“You don’t like it?”

“You are not doing this because they are forcing you, right?”

“No!” Chanyeol immediately yells. “N-No… They do keep on pushing me to you but I do l-like you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“I like you too, then.”

“Is this permission to flirt with you?”

The emperor laughs out loud, clapping the mortal’s arm in amusement. He is just laughing like this but in truth, he is already wondering deeply for the first time in years about the circumstances that took place earlier in his life that made him who he is today. It must not have been a coincidence for someone so much like  _him_ to come into his life, right? Chanyeol, who looks like just that person, could not have come by happenstance. It must be Fate, playing its tricks on them once again.

But this time, he wonders about what it has in store for him again. And with Chanyeol this time.

 

☆彡

 

_Entry #4_

_Baekhyun will always be happy under my watch._

 

☆彡

 

The days drag out desolate and cold as always, but nothing about Baekhyun’s life is dismal than it usually is because of Chanyeol’s presence within the palace. He is everywhere – greeting him the moment he rises, accompanying him for meals, fussing over him as they make their way around the palace just talking about everything and preoccupying him with anything that he could. The lively atmosphere is more evident now also because the mortal has become chummy with the Halleyians.

“Chanyeol can be aggressive, I can see,” Jongdae snickers when he catches Chanyeol and Baekhyun hanging around the fountain in the middle of the garden, the mortal’s arm resting over Baekhyun’s shoulders which he retracts upon getting caught.

“I hope we aren’t ruining anything,” Minseok says.

“You aren’t, but he is,” Baekhyun grumbles as he stares pointedly at Jongdae, quickly missing Chanyeol’s touch already. “What are you people still doing here? Shouldn’t you be back at the Halleyian Kingdom by now?”

“We have decided to stay because we want to be witness to you and Chanyeol’s little- ow!” Jongdae cries out when the Halleyian King pinches his ear.

“We are fond of Chanyeol, we want to be here for longer,” Minseok quickly says. “But since you guys are apparently busy, we shall take our leave!”

“Now it’s okay,” the mortal says. “Do please stay if you want to-”

“Okay, please go,” Baekhyun says, waving a hand. “You are just disturbing us.”

“You want Chanyeol all for yourself, so selfish,” Jongdae mockingly says. He reaches out and takes Minseok’s hand, saying, “Let’s go, honey. Let’s leave the two virgins alone for now, they are new at this thing.”

Chanyeol blossoms a cherry red, and Baekhyun angrily stalks after Jongdae, managing to punch him in gut before he and Minseok leave.

“They are so annoying,” Baekhyun grumbles as he walks back to Chanyeol. “Mortal, quick. Put your arm back on my shoulders.”

Chanyeol does as he is told like the good servant that he is.

“I was wondering…”

The taller looks down at the emperor.

“What is it?”

“Do you have any idea what the Sun looks like?”

The mortal hums as he shakes his head.

“No… I know nothing about the Sun. All the scriptures about him are gone after the cease of his rule across the sky.”

“But for you, what do you think does he look like?”

“Beautiful, maybe.”

The emperor unknowingly feels a smug smile cross his lips.

“Oh really?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol nods, his raven hair flopping at the moment. “Maybe tall too, bulky and ferocious.”

“What?” Baekhyun scoffs, pulling away from the mortal. “Just because he’s a big light disk across the sky, you think he’s big too?”

Chanyeol shrugs. “I don’t honestly know, but that’s the image my brain conjures up.”

Baekhyun breathes, calming himself down because he is feeling offended for no reason.

“Okay, whatever,” he says, waving a hand. “Next question. What will you do if you never see the Sun?”

“Is choosing to stay here an option?”

Baekhyun chuckles. “Why do you want to stay here?”

“To be with you?”

The emperor moves away from Chanyeol and stands in front of him. He reaches up, cupping his cheek affectionately.

“We just met, do you realize that?” the emperor murmurs. “It has only been such a short time since the first time we met. You cannot possibly exchange your family and friends for me.”

“At least here, I am not burdened.”

Chanyeol’s hardens in all seriousness as he puts a hand on the hand touching his cheek. “Here, I feel liberated. I feel free. Back in my realm, I can’t even do this.” He brings Baekhyun’s hand up to his lips, kissing the back of it, his eyes trained into the other’s deep brown ones. “I was too busy training and training and training… They never allowed me to do anything for myself.”

“I understand,” Baekhyun nods.

“So will you let me stay here?”

The emperor takes his hand in his.

“Be free with me, Chanyeol.”

 

☆彡

 

It is scary, how one’s feelings develop so fast when you establish a connection with someone you are attracted to.

Ever since the fiasco so many years ago, Baekhyun never thought he would be able to feel these kinds of emotions anymore. This fluffy, warm and giddy feeling bubbling inside him every time he sees Chanyeol feels so new and refreshing because it has been so many centuries the last time he felt them.

Being smitten is a wonderful yet very scary feeling.

“Where is Chanyeol?” he asks the moment he wakes up.

“No ‘Hello Sehun’, Your Highness?” his most trusted servant says as he watches Baekhyun stretch and roll around his bed.

“Go get yourself a boyfriend, Sehun.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend too, Your Highness.”

“I’m working on it,” the emperor playfully sticks his tongue out at the servant as he jumps out of the bed and walks over to the window.

Taken aback, Sehun follows after Baekhyun a few steps back.

“Wait, what do you mean by that?”

“Chanyeol is a very well-mannered young man, don’t you think?”

The servant narrows his eyes suspiciously.

“Wait a minute… Don’t tell me…” Sehun breaks out into a knowing grin as Baekhyun looks over his shoulder and shares a look at him.

“You and Sir Chanyeol…”

“I did not say anything!” Baekhyun singsongs playfully, laughing as he twirls around.

“You like him!” Sehun gasps. “Oh my, your smile is blinding. This is so fantastic.”

“I can’t stop smiling, this is ridiculous,” the emperor giggles, hands on the flesh of his pulled up cheeks.

“Winter has ended in your heart, oh thank the heavens,” Sehun sighs.

“I still can’t stop smiling.”

“You are very cute, Your Highness.”

“Say that again or I will strip you of your privileges this time, you little brat,” Baekhyun laughs as he skips out of his bed room to prepare for the day ahead.

 

☆彡

 

“So this where you have been all this time, Chanyeol.”

The mortal’s fingers come to a halt, the last note resonating through the room strong and vindictive before it slowly fades with a haunting quiver. He twists his body around and instinctively smiles at the enchanting sight of the emperor, who just grows even more and more beautiful as each of his risings come to pass. In the stead of the pallid and wan emperor he first met is now a flower blossoming during its peak season. Everyone says it is because of him, but Chanyeol did not believe that.

Baekhyun did that to himself.

For finding it in himself to feel for someone like Chanyeol, he allowed himself to change, and for the better.

“Hello,” the mortal greets him as the emperor slides into the spot next to him on the piano bench. “I’m sorry I did not join for a meal with you, I found this room and I just missed playing the piano. I lost track of time.”

“You have great skill in playing the piano, I never knew,” Baekhyun compliments.

“I’m not that great,” Chanyeol shyly says as presses the notes to create a little melody. “I just know some songs.”

“What was the one you were playing? It was beautiful.”

“It was a piece my mother taught me,” Chanyeol says. “Do you want me to teach you?”

“Play for me one more time.”

Chanyeol does as he is told. He is a bit nervous, hands shaky at the start. But when he glances up to look at Baekhyun, he is staring intently at him, deep brown eyes sparkling with diamonds of affection. When they meet gazes, Baekhyun gives him an encouraging smile and it eases him up, spurring himself to just relax.

“Oh that was magnificent,” the emperor sighs as he claps, impressed. “Teach me how this time. Warning, though. I can’t remember how to play the piano anymore.”

“So you put your hand here, right?” Chanyeol says, taking Baekhyun’s slender fingers and leading them to proper position. “And the other one here… That’s right, good. For the beginning of the song, this is the sequence.” He begins to demonstrate the first part again. “Got it?”

“Do you only know how to play by ear?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol laughs gently. “I never had time to study. I could only have enough time to learn pieces taught by my mother who herself did not know how to read music.”

“That is admirable,” Baekhyun murmurs. “Teach me more?”

Chanyeol nods and takes the emperor’s hands in his, placing his own fingers above his in order to guide them to the proper keys. Having Baekhyun this close allows him to get a huge whiff of his addicting scent and makes his insides turn fuzzy with his veins buzzing from excitement at the proximity. He also likes the feel of his slender fingers against his and the feel of his smooth skin. This is probably very creepy behavior, but he can’t help it.

In every sense, Emperor Baekhyun is very irresistible.

“You learn very fast,” Chanyeol murmurs close to his ear when Baekhyun masters the first three parts.

“You are a good teacher,” Baekhyun says, moving his head to the side. There is less than ten centimeters of space between them, and Chanyeol did not miss the way Baekhyun’s eyes flicker down to his lips before looking back to his eyes then turning to the piano.

They spend the next few hours playing, and by the time Chanyeol ends his lesson, Baekhyun could play the first half of the piece with relative ease.

“You are very good at this,” Chanyeol says. “Let’s have another session and I will teach you the rest of the piece.”

“Sounds good,” Baekhyun nods. “But this time,” he suddenly takes Chanyeol’s hands, pulling him up to his feet.

“What are we going to do?” Chanyeol asks as he lets the emperor drag him to the middle of the hall.

“Time for  _your_  lesson,” Baekhyun winks at him as he forcefully pulls the mortal against him.

“You’re teaching me how to dance?” Chanyeol murmurs lowly as Baekhyun guides his hands around his waist.

“Yes,” the emperor says as he hangs his arms around the mortal’s neck, pulling him closer. “Lesson number 1 is to hold your partner as close as possible.”

“Is this close enough?” Chanyeol giggles.

“Can be closer, but let’s take it easy,” Baekhyun chuckles.

“What’s lesson number two?”

“Dancing is free, just move your body to the rhythm.”

“We don’t have music.”

 _“Even time was lost in this place, completely captivated by your movements,”_  Baekhyun suddenly starts singing in a hushed voice, much to Chanyeol’s surprise, and eventually his excitement at hearing the emperor sing as he begins to sway their bodies from side  _to side._

_“I couldn’t stop you spreading inside of me, my eyes are only filled with you.”_

Gone is the playful atmosphere between them, replaced by the strong yet sheepish affinity sparking up in between them, stoking an invisible flame of romance that draws them closer to each other before they could even comprehend anything. That undeniable chemistry between them – both of them could feel it. It is so intense, even more when their eyes meet, a pool of hazel against deep brown, making both of their hearts pound so fast that it’s ringing in their ears.

_"I can’t even breathe, it gets deeper the more I try to escape."_

 Baekhyun’s voice grows weaker and weaker as Chanyeol finds himself compelled to bend his head, eyeing the emperor’s lips, drawn in like he has been enchanted. Spellbound by everything that makes up of Emperor Baekhyun.

 _“Just like this, I fall for you…”_  There’s only a centimeter left separating their lips, and Baekhyun’s voice drops even more. 

_“Into you, I’m falling endlessly.”_

Chanyeol’s breathing is sparse with anticipation as he slants his lips over Baekhyun's, their lips finally meeting.

But the moment comes to a stop when the door suddenly shoots open, revealing a panicked and exhausted Kyungsoo.

“Fucking Jongin and his- w-wait… What’s going on?”

Gasping at the sudden intrusion, Baekhyun pushes Chanyeol away too hard that it makes the mortal stumble and fall on his behind.

“I am so sorry!” Kyungsoo cries out when what they were doing finally dawns on him. “Your Highness I didn’t mean to!”

“It’s okay,” Baekhyun tells him, although he is red in face from getting caught in the act.

“I am so sorry I didn’t mean to disturb you!” Flustered, the guard covers his face with his hands and darts back out of the hall.

“My ass hurts…” Chanyeol groans as he slowly tries pushing himself off the floor.

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun exclaims as he quickly crouches down to help the mortal back up to his feet. “I’m so sorry! I did not mean to shove you away that hard, I was too shocked-”

“It’s okay,” the mortal waves a hand. “Maybe if I get a kiss it will heal– ow!” Baekhyun had suddenly punched his arm, cheeks still red.

“You’re so brave doing that,” the emperor mumbles. “It was so sudden.”

“You liked it anyway, didn’t you?” Chanyeol smirks, earning him another punch and this time, it’s in the gut.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says as he runs out of the hall, with the mortal laughing as he runs after him, calling out his name.

 

☆彡

 

_Entry # 5_

_Today, I kissed the emperor. Is it bad that I want more?_

 

 ☆彡

“Your Highness.”

Chanyeol stops talking and smiles up at Sehun, who approaches him and emperor while dining.

“Hello, Sehun,” Baekhyun greets the young servant, pulling his gaze away from the mortal. His eyes flit towards the tray that he is holding. “And what’s that?”

“The Halleyians have left just a while ago and-”

“What?” the emperor interrupts. “They left without bidding me goodbye? That disrespect!”

“-and they left me this letter.”

Sehun takes the cover of the tray off, revealing a folded piece of paper with a strange seal made of ice that would not melt. Baekhyun reaches out, taking the letter and unfolds it. His eyes dart back and forth as he reads through the note, face scrunching every now and then. In the end, he smiles then laughs in amusement.

“Why do they live like this, so spontaneous,” Baekhyun says as he looks at Chanyeol.

“What did they say?” Chanyeol asks.

“They have organized a party that they never mentioned what was for, and they ‘demand’ our presence by my next rising.”

And so, they immediately prepare for their trip to Halleyian. Chanyeol is a bit worried, not knowing what to expect but knowing him, he will be able to easily adapt to how things will be there. After all, he will be with Baekhyun. Everything will be okay as long as he is there.

The emperor is not dressed in flowy robes for the first time ever since Chanyeol arrived here when he emerges before they leave. He wears a pair of matching trousers that hug his legs well and dons a top with the same similar fiery patterns on his robes, only with his chest area slightly exposed, making him look so appealing. Chanyeol does not realize that he has been gazing at him a bit too much than was necessary until Baekhyun closes in on him, tiptoes and whispers in his ear, “Stop staring at me like that, it is making me feel inappropriate things.”

The mortal gulps down, meeting Baekhyun’s dark gaze before he winks teasingly then weaves his arm through his in his usually bubbly demeanor.

“I am so excited, Chanyeol! This is our first trip together.” He tilts his head to the side, smiling fondly at the mortal and asks, “Are you excited too?”

“Of course,” he answers.

Baekhyun is such a tease.

The entourage for the trip is composed of Jongin, Kyungsoo and other guards, with Sehun choosing to stay behind him in order to guard the palace.

“Would be so nice if you were there, you might be able to meet someone you could like!” Baekhyun had said, but Sehun just simply shook his head and told him that they should not think about him and just have fun.

“Aren’t you, umm, going to be cold, Baekhyun?” Chanyeol asks once they are inside the carriage, dragged by nebula spirits. “It’s going to be cold in the Halleyian kingdom, won’t it?”

“Indeed,” Baekhyun smiles as he leans back. “But that’s why you’re here. I want to dress good for once and you’re there to provide me with warmth when I do get the chill.”

“You are a big flirt,” Chanyeol comments.

Baekhyun just shrugs as he reaches out and puts a hand on the mortal’s thigh.

“You could say that… but to be honest, I’m only doing this for you.”

Chanyeol hates how the emperor knows how to make him blush so easily. He is so irresistible; this is not even funny anymore.

“What’s it like in the Halleyian Kingdom?” the mortal wonders.

“Not really different from us just… really cold. It is always snowing.”

“Snow is beautiful,” Chanyeol sighs. “We never get to really appreciate its beauty because the Terrarian Realm is too dark.”

Baekhyun could only smile wistfully and look away.

The trip takes a while. When conversation between them died down, Chanyeol finds himself getting a bit sleepy. His eyes are starting to feel heavy and they begin to droop down.

“You’re sleepy?” Baekhyun asks.

“Just a little bit,” the mortal answers, covering his mouth to let out a little yawn.

“Come here then,” Baekhyun urges him, putting a hand around his neck then gently pulling him down to rest his head on his shoulder.

“Nap for a while, Chanyeol,” the emperor coos, running his fingers through his raven locks, sending satisfying shivers through the mortal’s body before he drifts away to sleep.

_Chanyeol dreams of a world with the Sun, and Baekhyun is there with him, basking in its warm light._

The next time Chanyeol wakes up, they are already in the Halleyian Kingdom. There, they are greeted by a strong blizzard, which is probably the Halleyians’ way of giving them a warm welcome.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun quickly calls out, scooting towards him.

“It’s a blizzard outside, you need another layer.” The mortal takes one of his outer robes then drapes it over Baekhyun’s shoulders. “And if you still want body heat, you can always cling to me. Don’t be shy, Your Highness.”

“Oh I will,” Baekhyun singsongs.

When Chanyeol gets off the carriage, he helps Baekhyun out as well. The emperor immediately takes his arm, putting it over his shoulder then he puts an arm around the mortal’s waist.

“Warm?” Chanyeol chuckles. Baekhyun nods his head happily.

“I’m so glad to see you here!” Jongdae excitedly tells them as he rushes towards their direction, with Minseok calmly following after him.

“It’s been a long time since I came here,” Baekhyun laughs.

“It’s been centuries!” Jongdae exclaims, rolling his eyes. “You never get out of that stinking palace of yours.”

“What’s wrong with  _MY_  place you–”

“Should we go inside? It’s cold,” Minseok interrupts them, ushering them inside the Halleyian Palace. It is, as expected, made of blocks of ice that did not seem will ever melt. Within its interior, it’s different – it’s warm, with walls made of light blue-colored metals covered in blue-themed wallpaper.

“I don’t understand why you never put snowflakes as designs on your wall,” Baekhyun comments as they walk down the hallways.

Jongdae scrunches his nose. “That’s so… feminine.”

“What’s so feminine about snowflakes?!” Baekhyun shouts.

“It’s cute and swirly.”

“Cute and swirly isn’t just feminine, you moron.”

“Why are you so pressed about that?!”

“Stop it you two,” Minseok chides as he stops on hid tracks. “Baekhyun, this is your room. The one to the left will be Chanyeol’s.”

“Why? It’s okay if we use one room,” Baekhyun says.

Minseok gives him a look. “I can’t allow that.”

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. “And why not?”

“You really have to ask that?” Jongdae guffaws as he gives Chanyeol a judging glance. “You two in one room is a bad,  _bad_  idea.”

Baekhyun exchanges glances with Chanyeol, who finally gets what the Halleyians mean and looks away to avoid the Solar Emperor’s gaze, flustered.

“Ugh,” Baekhyun groans, rolling his eyes as he walks ahead down the hall, with Chanyeol running after him and the Halleyians laughing from behind.

 

☆彡

 

“I think we shouldn’t have come here.”

Chanyeol lets out a startled cry when the emperor had suddenly barged into his room while he is getting into his formal robes for the Halleyians’ party. The front of his robes are still not properly tied up, revealing his skin so he wrapped himself up before Baekhyun could see him exposed.

“Do not be so shy, it is just me,” Baekhyun chuckles, walking over to the mortal who starts sweating as the emperor walks up to him.

“I-I’m not done yet,” Chanyeol murmurs when he feels Baekhyun’s arm slide around his waist as he presses his body up against the mortal’s back, face digging into his robes as he inhales his scent.

“You are so big and cozy, perfect for this cold place,” Baekhyun whispers as he moves his head side to side.

Chanyeol blushes, avoiding his gaze in the mirror as he clears his throat.

“W-Why are you here, Baekhyun?”

“Ah.” The emperor slowly released Chanyeol, backing away and finally letting the mortal breathe. But comfort does not last long as Baekhyun steps forward and takes it upon himself to help Chanyeol fix up his robes. “I am just here to complain. I heard we are the only Solareans in that place.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Well it means we are going to be the center of attention because we are different. Chanyeol, if you have not noticed, I am the Solar Emperor and you are a mortal.”

“Right,” Chanyeol laughs as he scratches his temple, staring down at Baekhyun who finally finishes and just pats his front down.

“You look so dashing,” Baekhyun sighs, looking the mortal up and down before he runs a finger through the hair framing his forehead. “I do not want anyone to see you like this.”

“They can look, but only you can touch this,” Chanyeol grins impishly as he takes Baekhyun’s other hand, kissing it before he places it on his chest. He looks so handsome, with his usually brushed down blond hair now brushed up, his gold and diamond tear earrings replaced by elaborate piercings that run down the sides of his ears to his lobe, with the same gold and diamond tears but a bit more intricate. His robes are more luxurious, evidently only used for special occasions. Aside from all that, Baekhyun is  _glowing –_  from the stars in his hair to his iridescent skin to the markings on his face.

“You are one hell of a charmer, Park Chanyeol,” Baekhyun chuckles. “I bet a lot of people wanted to be with you back in your realm.”

“Whether or not they did, I still was not allowed to involve myself in trivial things like that,” Chanyeol answers. “And maybe I am a bit grateful because if I had, I would have had someone to come back to. I would not be here devoting myself to you.”

“You are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me in centuries,” Baekhyun sighs dreamily as he looks up at the mortal. Chanyeol may feel nothing close to being special, but unbeknownst to him, in the emperor’s eyes, he is  _everything_ and maybe even more _._  

“Well,” Baekhyun claps his hands together. “Shall we go? The party will be starting in a few, I presume. We cannot be late.”

Hand in hand, the two proceed down the hall, engaged in light chatter as they approach the hall. As they come closer, noises from the guest grow louder and louder, mixing in with the powerful voice of someone singing along to an orchestral type of instrumental accompaniment.

“Who is that singing?” Chanyeol says in awe.

“That is Jongdae,” Baekhyun answers before they enter through the door. Chanyeol’s eyes drift around, taking in the view of so many Halleyians all looking similar to their own Halleyian friends, just with the different hair and robes. When his eyes find their way towards the stairs, there he finally sees Lord Jongdae, looking so handsome and ethereal while singing with a smile across his face.

“He knows how to sing, I did not know,” Chanyeol murmurs. “And I thought no one can sing better than you…”

“Jongdae is god-tier,” Baekhyun chuckles. “Come on, let us stay at the sidelines for now and not attract attention as much as possible.”

But that does not last long because moments later, Chanyeol finds himself alone when the other Halleyians finally figure out that Baekhyun is the Solar Emperor. He could only smile as he drinks the celestial version of what could on be as punch in the Terrarian Realm, wondering if he should whisk Baekhyun away or not.

 “There is a mortal in our midst, what a curious sight.”

Chanyeol flinches when he looks to the side and sees a beautiful Halleyian woman next to him, holding a glass of celestial punch as well.

“They should have pulled you away along with the Solar Emperor as well,” she smiles charmingly as she gives him a sultry once over. “You look very,  _very_ interesting.”

Chanyeol smiles uncomfortably, wanting to just escape.

“Yes well I am of no importance,” he answers, trying to be polite.

The woman hums as she brings her glass to her plump dark lips, grey eyes still on the mortal who looks anywhere but on her.

“By the way, I am Lady Sooyoung. How about you, mortal?”

Is it a good idea to tell this person who he is?

“I am Chanyeol,” he introduces himself.

“Why are you in this realm?” she asks, taking a step closer. Chanyeol inhales the sweet scent she exudes, but it was too strong that it hurts his nasals. He cannot exactly tell her why he is here, right? She is a complete stranger, she has no business to know. But Chanyeol does not really know how to lie or to make up stories… yet, does he have a choice?

“T-That’s because I’m lost.”

Sooyoung perks her eyebrows up, curiosity officially piqued.

“You are a lost wanderer, yet here you are with the Solar Emperor. What are you to him?”

_What am I to Baekhyun?_

“I am–”

“Someone I treasure.”

The mortal flinches a bit in surprise when he feels an arm slide across his waist and the feel of a body pressing up against his side. He turns his head and sees Baekhyun, smiling graciously up at the woman.

“Hello, Your Highness,” Sooyoung greets, bowing to the emperor.

“Lady Sooyoung, it’s been a while,” Baekhyun tilts his head. “Thank you for talking to  _my_ Chanyeol.”

The possessiveness dripping from Baekhyun’s voice makes the mortal slightly blush before looking away.

“Chanyeol here seemed lonely, so I thought it would be nice to have a conversation with him.”

“I am grateful,” Baekhyun smiles as he weaves his arm through the taller’s. “Now if you will excuse me, Chanyeol and I have to go.”

Without waiting for the woman’s reply, Baekhyun swiftly twirls around, dragging Chanyeol with him.

“Where are we going?” the mortal wonders.

The emperor does not answer, so Chanyeol just falls silent. He just lets him drag him away wherever he wants to. In the end, they both end up in a balcony, far away from the chaos within the hall.

“Oh wow,” Chanyeol gasps when he sees the view. He inches towards the rails, mouth ajar as he stares out into the vast space ahead. The hectares ahead glowed from the emerald leaves of trees and patches of vibrant glowing flowerbeds with clouds of dust motes making it all look even more astounding.

“Beautiful, right?”

Chanyeol feels a pair of arms slither around his waist, then warm hands clasp over his belly. He looks over his shoulder and smiles when he sees Baekhyun’s sparkling brown eyes turning into crescents before he buries his face into his back.

Unclasping his hands, Chanyeol holds them then turns around to face the emperor, who flushes the slightest when he finds himself facing the mortal before he sighs and dives into his chest.

“What did you and Sooyoung talk about?” the emperor rumbles against his chest.

“Nothing important.”

“Oh really now?”

“Hey, what’s with that kind of tone?”

Baekhyun grumbles incomprehensibly as he just tightens his hold around Chanyeol’s waist.

“Baekhyun, say something.”

“What should I say?”

“Why do you sound annoyed?”

“I’m not.”

“Are you jealous?”

Baekhyun flinches as he steps back and gives Chanyeol an incredulous look.

“And why would I be?”

The mortal shrugs.

“Lady Sooyoung is a very fine lady.”

Baekhyun bites his lip.

“Oh really now?” the emperor mutters.

Chanyeol grins. “It was a pleasure to talk to her.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and steps even further away, this time dropping his hold around Chanyeol.

“Go to your Lady Sooyoung, then,” he grumbles. “Since you seem like you want her company more–”

There is an amused smile across Chanyeol’s face as he disrupts Baekhyun’s talk by pulling him back against him once more.

“Let go of me, heathen,” Baekhyun says, struggling, but Chanyeol cradles his cheeks in his large hands, finally making the emperor stop.

“You are very cute, Your Highness.”

“I will kill you.”

“I will kiss you.”

“What–”

Chanyeol never got to experience the feeling of being terribly infatuated by someone. Sure, he’s had crushes on certain people before, but he never got to the point of actually getting into a romantic relationship with them and when he does try to make a move, he realizes they’re just better off as friends.

Baekhyun is the first person he got to experience this with.

Everything about Baekhyun makes him feel this thrill rushing through his veins, gnawing at his bones and making his blood boil in a pleasing way. He feels it every time he sees Baekhyun for the first time when he rises, he feels it whenever they spend time together, he feels it every time they touch… He especially feels it right now, with Baekhyun’s lips against his in a smoldering, heated liplock that has Chanyeol forgetting where he is and who he is. He is only aware of Baekhyun’s hands holding onto his wrists and the sweetness that he has to offer.

He is lowkey addicted to the emperor.

So addicted that Chanyeol wants more. He finds himself pulling him closer, closer until he could grasp the emperor by his thighs. A mutual understanding passes through them and, Baekhyun hops, holding onto Chanyeol who grips him firmly by the under of his thighs then takes a step forward until he could let Baekhyun sit on the rails as he chastises him with plump lips against thin yet juicy downturned ones while his hands creep around being venturesome.

“Chanyeol…” Baekhyun breathes, wounding a finger around his chin. He tilts his head up and gazes darkly into the mortal’s eyes before trailing wet kisses across his jaw down to his throat, where he starts nipping on his skin. Chanyeol lets out airy little moans, closing his eyes as his hands work to unbutton the front of Baekhyun’s robes.

“I want you so much,” Chanyeol groans as he moves Baekhyun’s head to kiss him again. Now his fingers have managed to wriggle into the emperor’s robes, and he could now feel the smooth skin underneath, slightly searing from the heat of the moment that they are sharing.

“Have me, please,” Baekhyun whispers against his lips.

Everything is hot, hearts messy and craving reaching a new peak. Chanyeol’s mind strays boldly towards the edge of the spectrum of physical affection that he could share with Baekhyun, and while that part is usually something that he has an aversion to, he finds himself wanting cross the line.

“My room or yours?” Chanyeol whispers.

“Y-Yours,” Baekhyun answers, breathless.

Chanyeol smiles a little bit as he ties up the loose front of Baekhyun’s robes. He takes the emperor’s hand then starts to drag him away.

Only for a certain Halleyian King to block their way.

“And where have the two of you been?” Minseok wonders when he suddenly appears in front of them down the hallway, halting them on their tracks abruptly.

Chanyeol feels a single drop of sweat roll down his cheek as he squeezes Baekhyun’s hand anxiously.

“W-We were just–”

“Looking around!” Baekhyun chimes in with too much cheer. Minseok narrows his eyes at him suspiciously, but the couple stays quiet. The Halleyian shouldn’t know that they had been making out in the balcony rather than enjoying the party and are now on their way to do the frisky.

“I see then,” he says as he turns around. “Come, I want to introduce you to a couple of people.”

Baekhyun and Chanyeol share a look before they just chuckle and follow the man back to the dining hall.

 

☆彡

_“Chanyeol?”_

The mortal opens his eyes groggily, squinting as he looks at the door. He swears he had heard someone’s voice calling his name… or was it a dream?

_“Chanyeol, are you awake?”_

It wasn’t a dream.

“Who is there?” he asks as he sits up.

_“It’s Baekhyun.”_

Almost immediately, Chanyeol hops off the bed and walks over to the door. Upon opening it, he sees the emperor timidly smiling up at him. He is dressed in a white night robe and matching trousers, and in his arms is a huge pillow.

“Hello,” he shyly greets the mortal. “Did I disturb you?”

“N-No, it’s okay!” Chanyeol says, rubbing his eyes. “Why did you come?”

“Can I…” the emperor massages his neck. “…spend the night with you?”

“Of course!” the mortal says, a bit too eagerly that he clears his throat and reiterates, “I mean, sure. Okay.”

“Great,” Baekhyun says, smoothly walking past Chanyeol as he enters the room and immediately rushes towards his bed.

Chanyeol does not follow him to the bed, though. Instead, he walks towards the closet and takes out spare sheets. When he starts spreading it on the floor, Baekhyun suddenly exclaims, “Hey! What are you doing?!”

“I’m going to sleep on the floor…?”

“No!” Baekhyun says, voice a bit whiny as he reaches out and pulls Chanyeol up by the arm. “Let’s sleep together.”

“But the bed is not wide enough for two people.”

“We’ll make it fit,” Baekhyun winks.

And that’s how Chanyeol finds himself in bed with the emperor, lying on his side with Baekhyun’s back against his chest. It’s hard to move around in the bed, but it is a comfortable kind of fit that keeps the mortal’s mind awake even with his eyes closed and his heart beating so loud he hopes Baekhyun does not hear it.

“Chanyeol are you awake?”

_Pretend to sleep…_

The bed shifts, and Chanyeol feels Baekhyun roll over until he is facing him.

“You look very cute when you are asleep,” he hears the emperor murmur as he places a hand on his cheek. Chanyeol prays to whoever is listening out there to not let Baekhyun feel how hot his face feels right now.

Silence follows after as Baekhyun lay still, and it makes Chanyeol wonder if he had fallen asleep.

Upon attempting to open his eyes, Chanyeol suddenly feels Baekhyun’s lips press against his in a soft, chaste kiss. It was fleeting, ending as soon as it had started.

“Kiss me more.”

Chanyeol opens his eyes, and he revels in the surprised and flustered expression on Baekhyun’s face when he realizes that he had just been pretending to sleep.

“Ch-Chanyeol, I’m sorry–”

“Come on,” he says, pulling Baekhyun even closer against him. “Kiss me.”

Baekhyun seems hesitant, but he eventually leans in closer and presses his lips against Chanyeol. It’s shy and innocent at first, only simply molding his lips against Chanyeol’s, fluffing them up softly.

“Your lips are so plump,” the emperor whispers as gets bold and takes his bottom lip in between his teeth, staring straight into Chanyeol’s eyes with a sly glint in his deep brown ones.

“Are you holding back?” Chanyeol murmurs, one hand slowly caressing up and down the attractive curve of Baekhyun’s waist, occasionally settling on his hip before running down his waist again.

“Why?” Baekhyun smiles, leaning away as he touches Chanyeol’s bottom lip with a finger.

“Something tells me you’re just teasing me.”

“I’m not,” Baekhyun grins. “Why, do you want more?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol says, his voice getting raspy as something starts to stir inside of him. “Kiss me more.”

“I don’t know, maybe we should sleep– ah!”

Chanyeol suddenly pulls Baekhyun on top of him. The emperor holds on to the front of his robes, shaken by the sudden change of position. A mad blush touches his cheeks when he feels something against the crevice of his behind.

“Ch-Chanyeol–”

“Why are you so flustered?” the mortal says, grinning slightly. “You started this.”

“B-But–”

“Ignore it and just kiss me, will you?” Chanyeol sighs, pulling him down to crash their lips together.

Baekhyun is still holding himself back. With his hands paws at Chanyeol’s chest, he still keeps om just simply fluffing Chanyeol’s lips up. Once in a while, his tongue darts out to shyly lick at his lip before drawing back. Impatiently, the mortal wraps his arms around his waist, one hand gently cradling the back of the emperor’s head as his tongue fights to push past his lips. Baekhyun whimpers as he gives in to Chanyeol, letting him in. Immediately, Chanyeol dives in and begins deeply kissing him, groaning as he whips his tongue around to get a taste of everything that is the emperor.

It is sensual and ardent, the way the two shared a liplock. Chanyeol’s hands are naughty as they feel Baekhyun up. When oxygen went scarce, they pull away for a moment before diving in once again. They can’t get enough of each other. They need to closer than this.

“Do you want to continue where we left off?” Chanyeol murmurs next to Baekhyun’s ear before he trails openmouthed kisses down Baekhyun’s neck.

“Y-Yes, please…” Baekhyun whimpers breathlessly as he manages to untie the front of Chanyeol’s night robes. Suddenly, the mortal grips Baekhyun’s sides then switches their position. As Chanyeol hovers over the emperor, his night robes fall into curtains down, revealing the toned body underneath.

“You are so gorgeous,” Baekhyun whispers, staring up at Chanyeol with lustful yet dreamy eyes as he reaches out and runs his slender hands over the mortal’s taut muscles.

Suddenly, his hands stop. Baekhyun’s eyes shift from Chanyeol towards the skin on his chest. The mortal flinches when he feels a sudden warmth against his skin. When he looks down, he sees a soft glow coming from Baekhyun’s hands, illuminating his chest with light, revealing the mark that scars his skin.

“What is this?” Baekhyun whispers gently as he traces his fingers over the bumps, causing Chanyeol to suck in a deep breath.

“My mark,” he says, giving Baekhyun a sad smile. “The mark Fate gave to me as the one who will bring back the Sun.”

The emperor takes a moment of silence, staring at the mark intently. He leans forward, pressing an intimate kiss on the mark before he pulls down the mortal and kisses him once again.

As the seconds pass on, more of their clothes fly to the ground. They gain access to more of their skin, making sure they lather each up with amorous caresses, loving kisses and indecorous bites. The lewd sounds of Baekhyun’s moans echo through the walls as Chanyeol moves in and pleasures him with his fingers, his lithe phalanges preparing him for a more physical rendition of romancing that the mortal is willing to give him. And when Chanyeol makes sure Baekhyun is ready, he connects the two of them carefully and slowly, savoring the warm heat of Baekhyun’s insides, grappling him and embracing him with such an impassioned welcoming. It reduces the both of them into mindless vessels that could only mutter each other’s names in an obscene and needy way as they act out their lust and desire to fill each other in. Chanyeol moves roughly against the sheets, ramming into Baekhyun and pushing the both of them forward to an equilibrium of delight that only rises upward, upward into the atmosphere…

Until finally, they both break at the seams.

But they do not stop there, for the early hours are still far from nigh. They catch their breaths, stare into each other’s lustful gazes before they indulge themselves into another round of sensual gratification, enjoying the night as one together on the quaking bed, their hearts pounding at a parallel pace with one another.

 

☆彡

 

_The naughty little wisp of fire drifts up in the air among the glowing dust motes, dancing along with them before it bids them goodbye to make its way into the Solar Palace. It is all still within the golden walls, for the inhabitants have fallen asleep._

_Sneakily, with its light casting an eerie blue glow against the walls, the little wisp floats towards the direction of the emperor’s room- but not before passing by the mortal servant’s room. Without difficulty, it passes through the metal door and resurfaces in the other side._

_“Chanyeol…”_

_The mortal stirs in his sleep, eyebrows furrowed and face screwing in response to the strange voice that he could not discern whether it was just part of a dream or if it was for real._

_But sleep is too strong, and the mortal man chooses to sink deeper into its arms, completely ignoring the call for his name._

_The wisp of fire moves on._

_It leaves the mortal to his slumber and stalks down the hallways until he reaches the emperor’s chambers_

_Just like what it had done at the mortal’s room, the wisp of fire passes through the door and appears once again at the other side._

_There on the huge bed lies the emperor, curled up and looking smaller than he usually is under the white sheets, his blond hair fanning across his pillow and his arms folded over with his hands balled into fists on a spot on the pillow right next to his face. The wisp of fire sighs at the lovely view, slowly drifting towards the emperor’s figure. Drifting, drifting, gliding across the space until the wisp of fire slyly rests on the emperor’s lips._

_The fire within the emperor stirs. This fire spreads from his core outwards, spreading until the emperor glows with a bright aura. As he glows like that, his physical appearance starts changing – his blonde hair turning into a fiery orange shade, losing the stars in them, the jewels on his face burning even brighter and behind his eyelids, his irises turn a golden shade._

_Its job finished, the naughty little wisp of fire drifts away. Away into the night before it disappears once again._

☆彡

 

Chanyeol wakes up refreshed and happy as always.

But when he leaves his room and sees the servants rushing down the hallways in a panicked frenzy all while murmuring at each other in low, urgent voice, it appears that not everyone is in a good mood as he is.

“Excuse me?” he says, grabbing the arm of one of the servants. “I’m sorry, but may I ask what is happening?”

The servant looks hesitant to tell him, but she ends up saying, “I am not allowed to say anything, Sir Chanyeol, but since it is an emergency… you might want to go to the emperor’s chamber to see for yourself.

“What happened to Baekhyun?!” he shouts, suddenly anxious and very concerned at the mention of Baekhyun and emergency.

“Just come and see, sir.”

Hurriedly, Chanyeol rushes down the hallways along with the other servants. It’s hard for him to breathe properly when he is so worried for Baekhyun’s well-being.

_What on earth is even happening to him?_

The moment Chanyeol reaches the emperor’s room, he is greeted by the panicked loud yelling of Baekhyun’s voice.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol yells, elbowing his way through the clump of the servants gawking and talking among themselves.

When he manages to enter the emperor’s room, he is astonished when he is greeted by the sight of Baekhyun staring at his arms while sobbing with Sehun next to him, looking… not very himself. His blond hair is a fiery color of orange instead with all the stars now gone, his eyes are an intense shade of gold, the jewels on his face seem more vibrant in color, his skin is an iridescence of gold and silver instead of rainbows and he is surrounded by a dim glow of warm, yellow light. He looks so different, yet at the same time, still beautiful. Maybe even more.

Scratch that, he is  _magnificent_.

“Baekhyun?”

At the call of his name, Baekhyun looks up, his watery golden eyes falling on Chanyeol before widening in horror.

“T-Take him out of here!” he screams out hysterically, tugging at Sehun’s sleeve as he covers himself up with the bed sheets. “Chanyeol cannot see me like this!”

The servant stands up, grimly looking at Chanyeol as he walks towards him.

“What is happening to him?” Chanyeol asks.

“I will tell you,” Sehun says as he gently pushes Chanyeol and a couple servants out of the door, leaving Baekhyun to cry to himself.

“What is going on with Baekhyun?” the mortal repeats as he follows Sehun down the hallway. “Is he okay?”

“He is perfectly fine if you’re referring to his bodily health,” Sehun says as he stops and faces him. “But emotionally… not so much.”

“Emotionally?”

“Have you ever wondered why Baekhyun does not even function that much as an emperor yet we treat him like a fragile gemstone?”

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows. He never really thought of it but come to think of it, it does seem strange how they are so overprotective of him to the point that it is extreme.

“I have… thought about it,” he says.

“You see,” Sehun seems so uncertain. “Our emperor… he is very important. He is the Solar Emperor. Even if he… if he has abandoned his job thousands of years ago, he is still important. If he is completely gone, the balance of the universe will be tipped.”

“Thousands of years?” Chanyeol gasps. “But why do you people just say ‘centuries’?”

“It seems like centuries for us, but we have already been here for thousands of years,” Sehun says. “And I have a confession to make. About Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol is nervous, his heart is racing so fast.

“What is it?”

Sehun purses his lips. He takes a deep breath.

“Baekhyun is …”

He closes his eyes and exhales.

“...the Sun.”

Chanyeol’s eyes blow wide in shock and his lips part in awe.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“We are the Solareans, you are in the Solar Palace, Emperor Baekhyun’s whole kingdom is the Solar Empire and one of its kingdoms is the Halleyian Kingdom, which King Minseok rules. Solar refers to the Sun, Chanyeol.”

He cannot believe this. He certainly cannot believe this.

“We do not know what is happening to him right now,” Sehun sighs. “He has always been able to repress his Sun form and can release it only when necessary. When he rose this morning, he is surprised to wake up in his Sun form and panicked when he found out he cannot go back.”

“Why can’t he go back?”

“We don’t know that, okay? I’m…” Sehun puts his hands on his hips and exhales. “Something is changing about him, but I do not know what to think about it.”

“Why does he not want to see me?”

The younger man looks up at him and gives him a pointed look. “Oh? Why do you wonder about that? Isn’t it obvious?”

“I have no idea about anything,” Chanyeol frustratedly says. “I-I don’t understand.”

“You are after the Sun, and even after hiding his true identity for as long as he could, it is now out.  _He_ is the Sun that you came for. Knowing him, he’s probably thinking of the possibilities– besides the fact that all of this reminds him of his painful past love, you might use his affections for you to bring him back to the sky but eventually cause him the same pain that he has been suffering for years. Of course he will be wary of you now.”

“I can give up on trying to bring back the Sun for him,” the mortal says through gritted teeth. He knows, he is speaking at the heat of the moment out of desperation, but he has never been sure about anything as much as this. Everyone else be damned, he just wants to be with Baekhyun.

“Admirable, but you have to tell that to the emperor and convince him that you are genuine,” Sehun says.

“But can you help me convince him to talk to me first?” Chanyeol pleads. “Please?”

Sehun shakes his head.

“Emperor Baekhyun needs time,” he smiles as he reaches out and pats Chanyeol’s arm. “He will see you soon, don’t worry. He has been hiding away from humanity for thousands of years but he won’t hide away from you for long.”

The mortal smiles, but there is nothing but gloom inside his chest at the circumstances happening. Everything is so messy, he does not know what is going on. He thinks he already knows enough about Baekhyun, but there is a lot more to him than he bothered to confess.

Heeding Sehun, Chanyeol spends the rest of the day away from Baekhyun, distracting himself by going to the music hall to play away with the piano. When his fingers got tired and his mind strayed towards the emperor whom he needed to forget about for the meantime, he decides to leave and explore the palace.

“So you know about the Sun now?”

Startled, Chanyeol jolts and turns around, seeing Minseok standing right behind him.

“Hello, King Minseok,” he greets weakly.

The King walks towards him, and Chanyeol almost immediately feels that all-too familiar chill run over his skin as he closes in.

“I am curious about what you think now that you found out Baekhyun is actually the Sun,” Minseok says.

“I don’t know what to feel… it’s a jumbled mix of confusion and maybe, relief? Knowing that the Sun isn’t at all that gone which I have thought about sometimes, that is. But you know what, Your Highness? I really… really just want to be with Baekhyun. That’s all I want now.”

“What about your duty? Your task?”

“I know I am being selfish, but I can’t really force Baekhyun to shine up there, right? I can’t do that.”

Minseok nods.

“Maybe if you give Baekhyun a reason to shine, he will rise again.”

Chanyeol scrunches his eyebrows together. “A reason…?”

“That’s why we all do the things we do, right? Because we have a reason. Baekhyun has lost his reason a long time ago, and for as long as he does not have one, he will never have the will to rise.”

Give Baekhyun a reason? What kind of reason will compel Baekhyun to throw away his past miseries and finally do his job as the Sun? And will Chanyeol even be able to procure a reason as strong as this one is supposed to be?

Chanyeol is willing to just give in to his selfishness, but it does give him this small inkling of guilt. He has trained his whole life for this, sacrificed everything only to give it all up this easily? To be honest, Chanyeol does not care if his effort does not meet with what he sows in this circumstances, but he has to think about the sake of humanity, too.

“I understand, King Minseok,” Chanyeol nods. “Thank you so much for your words.”

“I did not make you worry about more things?” the Halleyian King chuckles.

“You made me see those things, you did make me worry but I will still end up discovering about it anyway.”

“I wish the best for you and Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol nods, shoulders sagged. Minseok pats his shoulder, turns on his heels and makes his way down the hallway, leaving the mortal alone on his own once again. He spends his time roaming the palace again, wandering around aimlessly before he finds himself in the garden.

Among the flowers, there Chanyeol finds a sense of sorrow because everything just reminds him of Baekhyun. His beautiful, lovely, broken Baekhyun who had been the Sun hiding all this time. Why does he not even want to rise again in the first place? Does his past love have anything to do with it?

Chanyeol adores Baekhyun so much, but he hates how he could never fully get a grasp of who he actually is. One moment he thinks he knows everything he has to know about Baekhyun and the next, he is shaken by something he has been hiding from him.

But then again, what does Chanyeol expect from a celestial who has been alive for millennia? He still has so much to learn about him, and all Chanyeol just needs is to be patient and do his best to be open-minded and understanding of him.

That is, if Baekhyun even still wants to see him.

Chanyeol gets his answer when he strays deeper into the garden. He stops on his tracks when he sees Baekhyun, still in his solar glory, standing in front of a shrub with ruby flowers that heavily resemble roses.

“B-Baekhyun…”

The emperor flinches at the mention of his name. Chanyeol gasps, one of his hands flying up to cover his mouth as he takes a step backward. He didn’t mean to say that out too loud.

Baekhyun turns around, offering Chanyeol a sad yet still blinding smile that stirs something in him that makes him want to smile back in return almost instinctively.

“Hello, Chanyeol,” he says, rubbing his arm as if to comfort himself.

“A-Are you okay?” the mortal asks uncertainly.

“To be honest? I’m not.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen when he sees the emperor suddenly burst into tears again. His hands shoot up to cover his face and wipe off the salty liquid, sobbing pitifully. The mortal feels something ache in his heart, causing something almost akin to pain to take a solid form in his throat.

“Baekhyun…” he murmurs, wanting to reach out and hold him, but the emperor takes a step back.

“Chanyeol, it hurts so bad,” Baekhyun says in between sobs. “Being the host of the Sun spirit has brought me nothing but pain. I have been repressing it to help me forget but now that I-I can’t seem to do so, I get reminded that no matter what I do, I am still the Sun.”

“Why does it hurt in the first place?” Chanyeol whispers. “Why can’t you just accept it?”

Baekhyun bites his lip. He looks so sorrowful and broken yet Chanyeol cannot help but think that he is still so beautiful.

“Chanyeol, do you know of the tale of the man who fell in love with the Sun?”

The mortal shakes his head.

“There is a man who was wrongly accused of committing a crime. Because of this, he was thrown into an island prison.

There in that island prison, the man is completely alone. No other humans, no friendly animals– only the wild beasts to keep him company in a hostile way.

But he wasn’t completely alone. When he looks up to the sky, there is the Sun, casting his warm light on him in the day. It gives him a sense of comforting solitude, like a baby being cradled in the warm arms of a mother. Safety. Protection. Heat.”

Baekhyun smiles at him through a fresh stream of tears that he immediately wipes off.

“And he fell in love with it.”

Chanyeol purses his lips.

“One day, the man was swamped with longing. He wanted to meet the Sun, face-to-face. He wanted to be with the Sun who was there to keep him company when no one else could. He wanted to be with the Sun who gave him warmth when everything in this world was bitter and cold.

He wanted to be with the Sun who made him feel love when everything was hopeless.

And so, the man went down to work. He had an idea. With a makeshift bow and arrow, he caught birds of all sizes. With their feathers, he proceeds to construct wings for himself that he would use to fly to the Sun. He crafted a framework for the wings with strong wood and then stuck them together with a special kind of wax that he created from all kinds of tree sap and animal wax.

Lo and behold, after an excruciating amount of time in crafting, everything is finally finished. The man feels pride swell in his chest as he stares at his beautiful creation – a pair of huge magnificent wings with rich, well-made plumage that almost looks like it was made for an actual bird of the sky.

“Finally,” the man says, tears of joy brimming in his eyes as he glances up to the sky. “I will be with you, my beloved. We will be together, like it should be.”

And so, not containing his delight, the man puts his wings on, dazed and caught up in the excitement of being another step closer towards reaching his dreams. Totally unaware of the consequences that would befall upon him.”

Chanyeol is in stunned silence, dread crawling through his veins as he gazes upon Baekhyun’s serene expression.

“ _They were beautiful,_ the man thinks so with pride as he spreads his arms and gets used to the movements. The wings are light, unlike the first ones that he had built that he could barely lift up. The lightness of his plumage and the way they allow him free movement gave him bright hope.

Wistfully, the man looks up the sky. He spreads his arms for another time as he steadfastly walks to the edge of a cliff, the Sun’s warm and comforting glow giving him strength.

And with eyes closed, the man finally jumps off the cliff.”

“D-Did he die?” Chanyeol uncertainly asks.

“Oh no he didn’t,” Baekhyun smiles sadly. “At least… not yet.

The man is talented and careful with his work, so he had made a pair of wings that supported him just fine and enabled him to soar through the air like that of a real bird.

Everything took a drastic turn when the man finally makes a twist through the air as he heads straight towards the Sun. He is too blinded by his love that he doesn’t notice his eyes getting dry and his skin starting to scald from the head. More importantly, he doesn’t know that the heat and the humidity is doing something to his plumage.

As he soars on, the man wonders why he isn’t making any progress, and why it seems like he is making a descent lower down rather than up. He is too disoriented by everything happening that he only realizes that things were not going his way when he is already falling straight down to his death, in the middle of the sea.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Chanyeol whispers in confusion.

“I’m telling you this because I am the Sun and someone indeed has died before because of me.”

Baekhyun sniffles, wiping his tears on to the sleeve of his robe.

“My lover… my past lover had died because of me, just like the man in the story. He died because I was the Sun, and it is the reason why I cannot rise anymore. This form,” he points to himself. This… this…  _curse…_ has done nothing but bring me pain. And I don’t want you to suffer.”

“But I don’t want to go,” Chanyeol says, tears finally brimming his eyes. “Baekhyun, I love you!”

“You cannot!” Baekhyun screams, hysterical. “You have to stop it, Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol closes in on Baekhyun, desperately reaching out to grab his hands in his, tightly.

“I can give up everything for you, Baekhyun. I won’t go back to the mortal realm… I won’t force you to rise… I don’t care about what Fate wants because I want to be with you. Please… don’t push me away. Don’t be so cruel.”

“I love you too, Chanyeol, I really do,” Baekhyun nods. “But in the presence of the Sun, a mortal like you will perish. And if you perish, I will perish forever. This is not only for you, but it is also for me. I am sorry Chanyeol, but you must go back to your realm. This is for the both of us.”

“But… But you told me we can be free together…”

Baekhyun breaks out into a bittersweet laughter.

“How on earth can we be free when I am trapped in my own prison?”

The mortal feels so helpless as he could only stare at Baekhyun, listening in to the morose blend of Baekhyun’s silent weeping and the sound of his own heart cracking into a million jagged pieces.

“I-I understand…” Chanyeol mumbles in a soulless voice. “I understand, Baekhyun.”

And in that moment, Chanyeol runs away before he could even hear what Baekhyun had to say next. It probably was not even important because the emperor does not follow after him.

It  _hurts_  him.

It hurts that Baekhyun lets go of him just that easily. Chanyeol has fallen so madly in love with him that he could not even see himself being happy back in the mortal realm. He probably won’t even be happy there not only because his heart is stuck here, but because he has not brought back the Sun like he is prophesied to do so.

Chanyeol is useless and a total disappointment, no realm will ever accept him.

And so, despite the dangers everyone has precautioned him about the life past the gates of the palace, Chanyeol runs out, never looking back anymore even with the guards yelling at him. He enters the woods and disappears through the thick luster of trees, tears finally making an appearance and falling in thick volumes down his cheeks, each drop sparkling against the light of the glowing dust motes.

Where should Chanyeol go? Should he at least try going back to the mortal realm? He is a huge disappointment, but he knows his family loves him enough to accept him back. There will be controversy and embarrassment but it will die down soon…

When Chanyeol reaches the lake that he and Baekhyun had discovered back then, his knees give in from the exhaustion of running and he crashes at the shore. He lies down on the grass, eyes closed as he heavily pants to catch his breath. Upon opening his eyes, he is greeted by the beautiful sight of galaxies away, a vibrant, chromatic mirage of violet, red and blue swirls with thick clusters of glowing dust motes dotting the atmosphere.

It would have been nice if he and Baekhyun had been born into a world where they aren’t burdened by unfortunate roles hindering their romance. A story of another them, where they’re not Chanyeol the Sun chaser and Baekhyun the embodiment of the Sun, but just the mundane version of their selves with a love that can blossom normally.

Chanyeol sniffs, no tears out of his eyes. Everything is possible in this universe, but there’s restrictions and he couldn’t possibly cheat them just to get what he wants without a heavier price than this unbearable hole in his heart.

_“Hello, Chanyeol.”_

At the sound of his name being called, Chanyeol turns his head to the side. Eyes wide, he scampers up into a sitting position when he sees a familiar wisp of blue fire hovering just overhead.

“It’s you!” Chanyeol cries out, even if he does think he probably looks like an idiot attempting to talk to a floating ball of fire.

But of course, the universe being what it is, the will ‘o wisp glows brightly, blinding Chanyeol for a moment. When it dies down, the mortal opens his eyes and its place now stands a man who strangely looks…

“…you look like me…”

The man raises an eyebrow in Chanyeol’s direction and smirks in amusement. Aside from the flowing black hair and the blue robes, his face was a similar match to Chanyeol’s, just more mature and wizened.

“You think so?” the man says. “Now I wonder why…”

“I remember you being the one leading me to this place,” Chanyeol says, watching the man sit next to him. The more he stares at him, the more he seems to resemble Chanyeol so he looks away.

“Maybe I did,” the man says.

“Aren’t you going to tell me who you are and why would you do this?”

“Maybe if you tell me what has happened between you and the emperor, I might do just that.”

Chanyeol gives the man a pointed look but after he sighs, he decides it’s best to tell him since he might be of help.

“Baekhyun doesn’t want me anymore,” the mortal says sorrowfully. “He… He doesn’t want me to suffer the same way his past lover did, so he threw me out. He wants me to go back to the Terrarian Realm.”

“You don’t want to go back?”

Chanyeol glares at the man. “Are you kidding me? I didn’t go all the way here to just come back empty-handed.” He huffs and cradles his head in his arms. “But because I don’t know what to do, I might as well go back. I will re-evaluate my life and try to forget about all this ever happening.”

The man hums as he lets silence come in between them.

“Do you want to know what happened to Baekhyun’s past lover?” he asks after several moments.

Chanyeol raises his head.

“How do you even know about it?”

“Thousands of years ago, the Sun ruled over the skies,” the man begins as he looks up to the galaxies ahead. “In order to keep it alive, a bloodline of celestial deities took it up as a task for their members to host the Sun spirit. They were one of the original Solareans. But tragedy struck, and a horde of varmint attacked them one by one until the whole line was driven to extinction, except for the one hosting the Sun spirit.”

“But how about Baekhyun?” Chanyeol wonders. “He told me he is half-mortal, half-celestial.”

“Ah we are getting there,” the man smiles. “Baekhyun… ah, the poor man. He was the offspring of one of the more rebellious members of the family with a mortal. He lived a good life in the Terrarian Realm with the man he loves, but everything came to an end when the current host of the Sun spirit at that time came to him and told him it’s time for him to take the responsibility.”

The man shrugs as he picked a single wildflower from near him, a sapphire flower that glowed at his touch.

“Of course, Baekhyun didn’t want to. He was only forced to do so because the host seemed so old already and badly needed to rest. The host didn’t even have enough time to prepare him before he finally died.”

“What did his lover do?” Chanyeol says.

“Baekhyun told him everything about what he truly is and what his future holds. When he decided to leave, the lover knew where he went and followed him there. Baekhyun is angry, telling him that the Celestial Realm is not a good place for him.”

“How did he die?”

The man smiles, and there was a weird type of melancholy in his eyes as he lifts the flowers up to his face and stared at it.

“The lover held Baekhyun so close to his heart he couldn’t imagine a world without him, so he did the ultimate sacrifice.” He turned to Chanyeol and smiled. “Did you know the Sun isn’t the only thing missing in the sky?”

The mortal’s eyes widen in disbelief.

“There’s another  _thing,_ ” he points up to the clouds, _“_ that’s supposed to be up there?”

“Indeed,” the man nods. “Have you heard about the Moon?”

Chanyeol shakes his head.

“What is a Moon?”

The man sighs. “The Moon is the Sun’s soulmate. Baekhyun is in deep misery because the Moon is not up there with him.”

Chanyeol laughs as he scratches his head, stressed.

“I was only told to bring the Sun back! Are you telling me that I should bring back the Moon, too? What does this have anything to do with Baekhyun’s lover…  _oh._ ”

Chanyeol stares in disbelief at the man, who smiles at him knowingly.

“Are you telling me...”

“It is your destiny to bring back the Sun, right?”

The mortal nods, biting his lip nervously as he fumbles with his fingers.

“But what if I don’t make it… like the lover… Baekhyun is making me leave because he wants me to avoid that same fate.”

Reaching out to him, the man pats his shoulder in comfort.

“You do not have to worry. I will be here to make sure that this time, Baekhyun gets his happy ending. We need to do this for him, alright?”

Chanyeol breathes in sharply, trying to calm his fast beating heart. 

“I will take the risk for Baekhyun.”

The man nods as he stands up. He extends his hand out to the other, saying, “Let us go fulfill your task, Chanyeol. Once and for all - for Baekhyun and for the world.”

Chanyeol feels tears drip down his eyes, but he ignores them as he takes the man’s hand.

 

☆彡

 

“For the second time in history, you are broken yet again.”

Baekhyun wipes away the never-ending stream of tears flowing down his cheeks, looking away from the window and he turns to his servant who stands calmly at his door.

“Sehun, hello,” he tries smiling, but it turns out to look more like a grimace than anything.

“Your Highness, aren’t you going to eat? You haven’t eaten your meal yet.”

Baekhyun looks down at his fingers wringing the bottom part of his robes.

“I am not hungry.”

Sehun breaks out into a fast walk towards the emperor. He stops in front of him and suddenly takes his hands in his.

“Please, Emperor Baekhyun,” the servant pleads, looking up at him with sharp yet glum crystal blue eyes. “You are in your Sun form… the Sun spirit has awakened inside you and you must nourish yourself in order for you to be able to carry it.”

“It’s okay, Sehun,” Baekhyun softly says, patting the young servant’s hands. “Let the Sun spirit leech on my life force. In that way, I may find peace in the sweet release of death.”

“What?!” Sehun shouts as he grabs the emperor by the shoulders, fear in his eyes. “Your Highness! You can’t say that, n-not when you don’t have an heir! N-Not when the Sun spirit does not have another host! The whole empire will collapse and the universe will be in great chaos-”

“I am very tired, Sehun,” Baekhyun weakly says as he sags in the servant’s hold, who scrambles to keep him up on his feet. “I want rest, I want…”

The servant suddenly squints, eyes blinded by a bright light penetrating through the room. He looks down at Baekhyun, who seems startled as well by the sudden rush of light.

“What was that?” Baekhyun wonders. “Has Jongdae and Minseok arrived?”

“They have never left the Solar Palace, Your Highness,” Sehun says as his eyes shift towards the window. Gently, he guides Baekhyun to the bed, letting him sit there. Confused, the emperor follows the servant with his eyes as he approaches the open window, looking up to the clouds ahead.

“Oh heavens… Is this a dream?”

“Sehun?” Baekhyun slowly rises from the bed and walks up to the servant who is staring out of the window in awe. “What is happening?”

“Your Highness…” the servant points out of the window. “L-Look… up in the sky… T-The…”

Baekhyun’s eyes follow where Sehun is pointing at. He does not comprehend what he is seeing at first, but slowly, upon recognizing the huge disk of space debris up in the sky casting a warm bluish glow across the atmosphere, a realization comes crashing hard upon him.

“It’s the Moon…” Baekhyun mutters in astonishment. “Sehun, t-that’s the Moon…”

“Sire,” Sehun gasps. “The Moon! The Moon is back in the sky! Your Highness, how did this happen- Your Highness?!”

With the surge of energy that shoots through his veins, Baekhyun rushes down the hallway and breaks out into a frantic run towards the gates. His body has grown weak and he couldn’t breathe properly, but he is overcome by shock, adrenaline, happiness and wonder so his legs are able to carry him over a distance, his eyes never leaving the view of the Moon up in the sky. He ignores the screams of his constituents for him and continues to run, the cry of the Sun spirit for the Moon pushing him.

_The Moon… The Moon is up… Who could have taken the Moon spirit? Could it be…?_

Baekhyun stops in his tracks when he finally sees him.

Chanyeol is standing in the middle of a field, eyes closed as his head tilts up to the sky. His hair has now turned silver, glowing with moonlight as they flowed over his shoulders. He wore robes of fashion much similar to his but instead, it is patterned with blue swirls and calming waves. When he opens his eyes, there comes the view of two deep pools of blue. The emperor catches his breath, gazing upon Chanyeol’s magnificence. In turn, the man catches his eye and gives him a soft smile.

And suddenly, he falls to the ground.

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun cries out as he rushed to the man. He falls on his knees and starts shaking him by the shoulders.

“Chanyeol! Please wake up!”

“Baekhyun…” Chanyeol murmurs, smiling affectionately up at him. “I did it… I did it… I did it for you…”

“You did, yes you did,” Baekhyun nods, pursing his lips as he takes Chanyeol’s hand and kisses it. “My beloved Moon, you did it.”

“I will stop chasing you now because my role this time is to stay by your side as long as I could,” Chanyeol whispers.

“So please… rise for me.”

 

☆彡

 

Chanyeol’s body feels so sore when he woke up that… morning?

Blinking, he adjusts his eyes to the light and looks out of the window. Indeed, it was morning. It is sunlight that floods through his room, and it is the Sun shining up in the sky.

“The Sun!” he cries out, stunned as he runs towards the window. Chanyeol gazes up at the glorious disk of light up in the sky, casting a warm glow in the darkness. In stunned silence, he continues to stare until he realizes his eyes are drying up and he looks away.

He cannot believe it… The Sun is up…

After letting his eyes recover, Chanyeol stares down at himself. He is wearing strange blue robes that he has never seen before and his hair… oh his hair…

“Knock knock?”

Chanyeol flinches as he looks up to the door.

“Chanyeol, are you awake? Can I come in?”

The mortal – or was  _once_  mortal – perks up and nods, saying, “Yes of course! Please come in!”

The door opens, and Chanyeol gapes in awe when he sees who it was.

“B-Baekhyun,” he stutters, flustered for some reason. The emperor smiles at him fondly, looking healthier than he was the last time he saw him. He is in his Sun form, and he looks absolutely gorgeous with his twinkling golden pits and his glazed pulled-up pinkish cheeks while he wore his usual regal robes.

“Good morning, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun greets him sweetly. “How are you feeling?”

“Morning…” Chanyeol murmurs. “It’s morning…”

Baekhyun nods happily as he sits on the bed. He brings his face to Chanyeol, staring at him intently with his intense golden eyes before he reaches out and weaves his fingers gently through his silvery silken locks.

“You’re so beautiful, Chanyeol…” Baekhyun sighs as he leans in, slanting his lips over his in an enamoring kiss.

Chanyeol feels warmth seep into his body as Baekhyun rests his hands on his chests. In turn, the taller wraps his arms around his body and pulls him in, deepening the kiss.

“Thank you for bringing me back,” Baekhyun murmurs against his lips, hands climbing up to caress Chanyeol’s cheeks. “You did not give up on me.”

“I was fated not to  _chase_  the Sun, but to stand  _with_  the Sun,” Chanyeol says, pressing his forehead against Baekhyun’s. “Like this, forever, I will love you and stay by your side.

“Let us light the skies together,” the Solar Emperor says with confidence, now that he has his soulmate – his precious Lunar Emperor, the one he needed to give him the reason to shine again.

 

The End.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please expect future drabbles relating to this fic~


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